One Whole Heartbreak

By Jennifer Mills Kerr

---

Before dawn, diapers, milk, washing the floors. Skies bathed

by every prayer, sacred wings through snags of stars. You and I 

at the kitchen table, a tiny universe. Perhaps the sweet bite 

of gossip, laughter, perhaps ghosts and enemies swept clean. 

We drink coffee inside the unsteady light, flight of morning darkness 

into hushed scarlet. Sorrow, twisted language inside pockets. For 

you or I to name a wound, to open the shape of echo and awe, 

we recall an eagle circling the blue bowl of sky.





Sources:
Joy Harjo, Perhaps the World Ends Here, Eagle Poem, Insomnia & the Seven Steps of Grace, My House is the Red Earth, When the World as We Knew It Ended; Marcelo Hernandez Castillo, Cenzontle

---

---

Jennifer Mills Kerr is an educator, poet, and writer who lives in Northern California. She has work upcoming in The Inflectionist Review and Neologism Poetry Journal. Connect with Jennifer through her Substack, Poetry Inspired.

---

• Residency applications are live! If you want to attend a SWWIM residency, please check out the FAQs and submit via Submittable. We’d love to review your work!

• 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 email swwimmiami@gmail.com with a link to 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.