ANNA SWIR IS MISSING IN THE FOREST

Photo by S. Auberle

ANNA SWIR IS MISSING IN THE FOREST

Last seen lying on a log

among trilliums, ladyslippers

and columbine...

It has rained since then,

a downpour of sweetness

drenching the book

I left among trees

where birds and squirrels

may one day line their nests

with a poet's words.

I didn't mean to leave her there,

but knelt to gather mushrooms

and, forgetting, walked away.

As she lay dying in Poland,

Anna wrote the book's last poem,

hospital sheets white and sterile

beneath her, no bed

of dark loam and leaves

no choirs of wildflowers

no one to whisper

she did not die,

she's only gone missing

for awhile

in the forest.

- mimi