Ramona and the Swans, by Laurel Brett

Swan Series, by Hilda af Klint (Sweden) 1914-15

Ramona and the Swans
  
Ramona writes to me  
I remember our walks
 
when we talked of existentialism
& esoteric things.
 
We were such serious girls.
One day we saw a starling
 
dead on the roadside dreaming    
of being fully human.
 
Today in my garden a rush of wind 
recalls the movement of wings
 
& Hilma af Klint’s paintings:
the first in her series Swan:
 
two birds. One black male
with yellow beak    the female white & blue.
 
The paintings grow more abstract
until two swans become a segmented circle 
 
divided by a spectrum of colour
on a red square,    
 
Hilma reaching for the essence 
of swan to express the merging 
 
of opposites. Ramona’s letter 
says she now believes 
 
in evil. I don’t know 
what to think. I could explore
 
the Mill Pond swans
investigate beauty & violence.
           
                      **
 
In the fifteenth century
Edward IV’s Act Concerning Swans
 
limited owning and eating swans
to the monarchy and gentry.
 
On Long Island the killing or harming
of mute swans is a criminal offense
 
but they are also an invasive    
species     displacing native 
 
water birds     sometimes their eggs
moved    or destroyed
 
to save the local fowl.
Once I walked the small street 
 
where I lived
with my two toddlers 
 
giggling until we faced a swan,
an awkward fiercesome thing
 
before us.    Would wings attempt 
to smother us    a beak peck skin?
 
     she walked on.
 
 
Laurel Brett

Laurel Brett has been viewing art since she was a tiny child on outings with her father. Paintings feature prominently in her novel, The Schrödinger Girl,  and her debut poetry collection, Penelope in the Car (Indolent Press, 2029, available for preorder.)