---
title: 'Swan song'
project: 'Elegies for Alternate Selves'
...

Swans fly overhead singing goodbye \
to we [walkers of the earth][ithappened].  You point \
to them in formation, you tell me \
you are not you.  You are the air the swans \
walk on as they journey like pilgrims \
to a temple in the south.  A curtain \
there separates me from you, swans \
from the air they fly through.  I say \
that you are no longer the temple, \
that you have been through fire \
and are now less than ash.  You are \
a [mirror][] of me, the [air without a swan][trumpet].  \
Together, we are each other.  You \
and I have both nothing and everything \
at once.  We own the world and nothing in it.

[ithappened]: 22-howithappened.html
[mirror]: 28-moongone.html
[trumpet]: 43-deathstrumpet.html