Cole Swensen
An Egg

rose today instead of the sun, radiantly white, brightly smooth, and with a private light that will paint itself onto all things and make them gleam. And if it succeeds, the following day will dawn a raven’s egg, and again the paint, but this time, because the egg is smaller, the brush is finer, and so the world will gain considerable detail, and the next day, a quail’s, so yet more and finer detail, and then a hummingbird’s etc., each one making the world ever more richly particular, though by the time we get down to the fly and her 500+ eggs a day, while the intricacy is almost infinite, the hundreds of dawns have become so blinding that we can’t possibly see it.

 
Found In Volume 55, No. 04
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Cole Swensen
About the Author
Cole Swensen's most recent books are Veer (Alice James Books, 2026) and And And And (Shearsman, 2023), long-listed for the Griffin Prize.