{"id":2688,"date":"2018-02-23T12:00:37","date_gmt":"2018-02-23T12:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/translatingpain\/?p=2688"},"modified":"2018-02-23T12:00:37","modified_gmt":"2018-02-23T12:00:37","slug":"2688-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/a-bel-abroad\/2688-2\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Swans and Swallows’, by\u00a0Mary Marie Dixon"},"content":{"rendered":"

(After Tennyson\u2019s \u2018The Dying Swan\u2019)<\/span><\/p>\n

In this wasting plain a<\/span>
\n Wedge of swans<\/span>
\n Tangle in water<\/span>
\n So deep her eyes<\/span>
\n In the gyring ferment<\/span><\/p>\n

I am impotent<\/span>
\n Warming blankets only burn<\/span>
\n The stab<\/span><\/p>\n

I cannot touch her<\/span>
\n I cannot reach her<\/span>
\n To this berth I cannot go<\/span>
\n She writhes<\/span><\/p>\n

White feathers<\/span>
\n Drop around her bed<\/span>
\n Swans wedge her in again<\/span>
\n Swimming violently<\/span>
\n Their bowing heads<\/span>
\n Surface again<\/span><\/p>\n

This churning of webbed feet<\/span>
\n In water I cannot enter nor fathom<\/span>
\n There is no present no past no future<\/span>
\n Only some existence that is now and not now<\/span><\/p>\n

She would wish to die<\/span>
\n I would wish to die<\/span><\/p>\n

Explicitly she does not wish to die<\/span>
\n The room is swirling with the rotation of swans<\/span>
\n Specters with no beauty<\/span>
\n Shape-shifters leading to another world<\/span>
\n No end no beginning<\/span>
\n \u00a0<\/span>
\n Still outside we hear<\/span>
\n In thunder birds<\/span>
\n A swirling of swallows<\/span><\/p>\n