Givens

By Suzanne Edison

---

In the newspaper, inevitable disasters are there, waiting—

            another forest, another animal species, another language,

will disappear unprotected—forgive us


I check on the raspberry patch, this year’s harvest, meager, and know

            the wild rats have been up early, beat me to them—

When I say wild, pollen dusts my heart and I wonder—will there be children

            —forgive us


I can hold the wren’s wing, but not her extinguished song, cupped

            in my hands—I can bury her, forgive the hungry hawk—

won’t my demise be snatched by wind?


I don’t know how to stop whatever is bent on destruction—

---

---

Suzanne Edison’s book, Since the House Is Burning, was published in 2022 by MoonPath Press. Her chapbook, The Body Lives Its Undoing, was published in 2018. Poetry can be found in The Missouri Review, Solstice Literary Journal, Quartet Journal; Gyroscope Review; The Nature of Our Times; Whale Road Review; Lily Poetry Review; and elsewhere. She lives in Seattle, is an avid gardener, and cloud-watcher. See seedison.com

---

• Are you looking for editorial feedback? SWWIM’s editors offer commentary on 3-6 pages of poetry. Submit here!

• SWWIM Every Day accepts poetry translations for publication consideration. Please see swwim.org/submit for the full guidelines.

• Are you a SWWIMmer with literary news to share (publication/feature/award/book/book review)? We’d love to shout out your accomplishments in our Weekly Spotlight! Please fill out this form with your news. (No DMs on any social media platforms, please.)

• Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter/X, and Bluesky for more updates—and visit our website to see past, present, and future readings & events.

---

**We do our best to preserve the integrity of each poem; however, due to programming limitations, some poems may read differently on a mobile phone and in certain browsers. For best viewing, use Chrome on a desktop/laptop.