but this one is alone in the small pond of water
beneath the falls where the river remains open
every night she circles inside those boundaries of ice
too late now she commits to winter
like the rest of us her long arched neck
the curve of wings framed in wintry landscape
a fairy tale the white river
a highway of stars snow weighing on pines
heavy and beautiful is this curse
keeping us all asleep forever
hushed clouds of breath a solitary sound
dropping from black branches like the quiet flap of wings
caught in this pond I am circling
singing all night our tale a frozen world
the ache inside waking outside the given
outside the resting place where I call the name
I do not know to be known
my own name called in return that light might come
swimming up from the dark resurrected in these flowing waters
we never learn how swan lost her shadow
only that she waits and he like spring
might never arrive