tomorrow, back to kamote"
--SMS from a friend after a sponsored visit to a five-star hotel in the south
we imagine ourselves
to be occasional swans,
graceful, gliding,
grateful for feel
of life-giving sun & water
& married for life
to the purest notes
in saint-saens' the swan
or anything suggestive
of a higher calling
but the tedium, delirium
of earning our keep
keep us rooted to the ground
against our better impulses
like the chicken that scratches
the ground for worm to feed her chicks
like the ungainly duck that
quacks to announce its hunger
meanwhile, let us cherish
the swan that is still in us,
let us keep moving andantino grazioso
despite bodies battered
by ailment & aging
we are warriors, not swans
swans can't swim up waterfalls
but we can
--Babeth Lolarga
Photo of the great Russian ballerina Maya Plisetskaya dancing "The Swan" from the World Wide Web
No comments:
Post a Comment