Or was it that the boy was so beautiful
she called him a swan
though he really was not a swan
as she’d made them
as they were willing
to believe. He wasn’t
a swan and he wasn’t
a boy. He just looked like a boy
innocent and harmless, someone
you could handle if you had to.
It was just better to say that something divine
entered an innocently beautiful creature grazing
the tender shoots of soft grass on the banks
of the infinitely flowing river, better to believe
a curious deity knowing she would come this way
violated an innocent beast and that
the violated beast raised its head
with double seeing
and drove this god curious for beauty before he knew
it was happening to the crest of the hill until
even a god
became victim
became victim
of a swan’s
desire.
desire.
