The Testimony Given to the Court Remains Ambiguous, by Devon Balwit

Leda and the Swan, be Lelio Orsi (Italy). 1560s.

The Testimony Given to the Court Remains Ambiguous

Like a milkmaid, Leda curves 
            into the avid swan, her sheer

rain of drapery spilling 
            into cloud. She looks grim

about her business. What 
            the swan is whispering,

blandishments or threats,
            escapes us. Perhaps 

Zeus worries about comparisons
            to swains, fearing he’ll come

off poorly with his primitive cloaca. 
            He presses his other 

points upon her. Above, horses, dogs, 
            a girl model shock, 

the world holding more possibilities 
           than they were told of. 

Devon Balwit

This poem was written in response to the surprise ekphrastic poetry challenge on birds.
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Devon Balwit teaches in Portland, OR. She has six chapbooks and two collections out or forthcoming, among them: We are Procession, Seismograph (Nixes Mate Books), Risk Being/Complicated (A collaboration with Canadian artist Lorette C. Luzajic); and Motes at Play in the Halls of Light (Kelsay Books). Her individual poems can be found here in The Ekphrastic Review as well as in The Cincinnati Review, The Carolina Quarterly, Fifth Wednesday, the Aeolian Harp Folio, Red Earth Review, The Fourth River, The Free State Review, Red Paint Hill, Peacock Journal, and more.