A poem inspired by Juliet Robertson’s poem ‘Let me be a goose’ and Kathryn Bevis poem ‘Flamingo’

The beautiful painting below was gifted to me for Christmas by my parents and is painted by the incredibly talented artist Rhona Wilson.

Let me be a swan

When this small, tired body loosens

 it’s grip on breath and bone,

Let me not vanish –

Let me change

Let me be a swan.

•

Let death be water

Cool and silver,

Closing over my name,

Opening wide its wings.

•

I wish to wake in silence,

My white feathers embracing the light.

My heart steady as the lake at dawn.

No clocks, nor time,

Only the slow, holy work of gliding.

•

And there you are –

My love, my cob,

Dark-eyed and constant,

Waiting as if you always knew

this is how I would find you.

•

Neck to neck

We write eternity entwined in curves

The reeds whisper that this is now our home

The stars are stitched into the water

A sky that will never ask us to leave.

•

So when I am finished with being human,

With breaking and mending

With learning love the hard way –

Let me be a swan.

•

For as long as eternity has room for two,

Let me be a swan.

-Lesley Johnstone