Where mud flats and frozen grass begin,
The inlet specializes in
White floats’ insessile ice’s spin;
The styrofoam and wan lumps
Are turning into swan boats and swan rumps
Upended then, unbending necks sound trumpets;
Their Majesties, indignant, deign to glide in.
Migrating Gods, the swans show up below,
But it’s not Zeus and Leda now who’ve sworn
To ravish or succumb, just acolytes who throw
Into the sea some bucketfuls of bread and corn.
Insessile – In marine biology, not fixed in position, free to move about; the opposite of sessile which means “permanently attached.”
Migrating Gods, the swans show up below – Tundra swans (Cygnus columbianus) migrate in winter from their breeding grounds in the Arctic to the east and west coasts of the United States.
Zeus and Leda – In Greek mythology, the chief of the gods, Zeus, transformed himself into a swan to make love to Leda, the wife of the king of Sparta.