---
title: Swan song
genre: verse

project:
    title: Elegies for alternate selves
    css: elegies
    order: 24
    prev:
    - title: The squirrel
      link: squirrel
    next:
    - title: Telemarketer
      link: telemarketer
...

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][alt] 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]: howithappened.html
[mirror]: moongone.html
[trumpet]: deathstrumpet.html
[alt]: swansong-alt.html