~Painting Swans~

[Guest guest]

Painting Swans

 

I make charcoal streaks on canvas sky

and painted birds

that flap their wings

and dry.

 

A sallow sun,

moist to touch like dew,

smeared above a lake works fine.

 

Mixed with intent, so loving,

I swirl and dab and paint

a world with dye.

 

Each precious brush stroke,

stroking,

tunes in clearer,

ever finer

 

…the gift.

 

For nobody would know it,

 

(as it’s realized)

 

…that this slice of landscape scene,

 

contains the whole

 

land,

sea,

and sky.

 

Pictured in our mind,

revealing…

 

Ecstatic swans emerge and mingle

over a mirror lake of frozen glass

that evaporates into sky…

 

And I set them free forever.