How do you catch the meaning of a life?
Not the life on the outside, not the sun
Reflecting off the surface, but within,

Fleeting as whispers. Who lurks in the hide,
Watching us in suspense, binoculars
Turned on us shyly, turned on us like mirrors?

If we are careless, bursting into flight,
Slapping the water’s face with alarmed wings,
Rising until the tips flick spreading rings

Fading towards the shore, their far horizon,
As we climb fading slowly into ours,
How will we learn the truth? Here let us pause

And be the swans he came to scrutinise,
That he may venture from his hiding place
And meet us by the water face to face.

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Changed the title to ‘Swans’ – 26 August 2015