UNDERGRADUATE CREATIVE WRITING

Anatomy

by Evan Harrison

I used to look 
at you, robin, and see 
a robust red breast
and smoky wings,
feathers stolen 
from a building
rusted by rain—
now, I think 
too much
about what has left.
I see 
your tiny stomach 
and lungs,
spoons of blood. 
Am I sickened
or just shaken
at the sallow 
ring around
your pale heart, liver 
too pure in its red-purple,
trachea like a stalk
of headless flower?
Pressed together,
mess of wet machinery,
you
push me 
to the center
in flights of 
fall-apart beauty.

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