photoart: sharon auberle
ANNA SWIR IS MISSING IN THE FOREST
by Sharon
Auberle
Last seen
lying on a log
among trilliums, lady's slippers
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
then, 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.
~ first published in Crow Ink (Little
Eagle Press)
Editor’s note:
Some days after losing the book and gaining this poem, Ms. Auberle
retraced her steps through the woodlands and recovered the volume, dampish and
lovely and treasured more than ever.
