After a Sudden Blow, by Paul Jones

NotThis Time, by Jill Eberle (USA) contemporary. Click on image for artist site.

After a Sudden Blow

Swan feathers snow the hotel room.
What isn't to be seen is blood.
A plumed body, like a costume
Neglected after a wild night, floods

The floor. The bird lost his head.
Randy, Zeus-possessed, aflame. 
Once animal. Then God. Then dead.
Yellow hair flashed at his doom.

Look at his beak; its colours bled,
Embossed, shaded like Celtic runes.
Did the manic bird-heart's dread,
As life left, blush her cheeks to bloom?

Just as she took on his power,
Our Leda put on his colours.
Vivid, not without pity, her
Eyes say, "I'll choose my lovers."

Paul Jones

This poem first appeared as part of the Craven Arts (NC) Ekphrastic Challenge and 2020 Bank of the Arts National Juried Exhibition. 

http://www.cravenarts.org/

More about the artist: https://www.jilleberle.com/

Paul Jones — Poetry, Triggerfish Critical Review, Broadkill Review, and recently in The Ekphrastic Review as well as anthologies including Best American Erotic Poems (1800 - Present). Recently nominated for two Pushcart Prizes and two Best of the Web Awards. Chapbook, What the Welsh and Chinese Have in Common. Manuscript of poems crashed on the moon’s surface April 11, 2019.