A curve of thick-toothed tread—a halo of neglect
around a disk of water (like a de-silvered mirror)
reflecting coarse cliffs topped by oak and
maple, their crowns filled with branchy nests
of red-tailed hawks. This morning, a robin
bathed, lifting its wings and splashing itself
inside a garbage can lid.
It’s often this way: blight
preserved by its own durability
and the ravaging beauty
—
Robin Rosen Chang is the author of the full-length poetry collection, The Curator’s Notes (Terrapin Books, 2021). Her poems appear in Michigan Quarterly Review, The Journal, Diode, North American Review, The Cortland Review, Verse Daily, and elsewhere. She was the recipient of the Oregon Poetry Association’s Fall 2018 Poets’ Choice Award, an honorable mention for Spoon River Poetry Review’s 2019 Editors’ Prize, and a 2021 Pushcart nominee. She has an MFA from the Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College.
Photography by: Omid Roshan
