"Swaning Around."

Gilded swans
Coast ghostly
In the night air.
Haughty yet demure
A question of contradiction.
Beadily watchful
Bending greedily for crumbs
Making do
While truth swims by, unseen.

Ladies of the night.
Painted beauty glowing darkly
But cold glowering hearts
Viciously oust outsiders,
Territorial while they mark their patch.

Daylight reveals their truth
Bedraggled, muck encrusted wings,
Flea infected, lice-ridden to death
They hang their heads, wearily, deflated.



Who will wash them clean again?
Only He who first placed them here;
Wrong choices made, a challenge failed,
Yet they can be renewed, snowy white
If they only release themselves from their captivity
Into His care.


Kittie Carr