"Swan Falls in Love with Swan-Shaped Boat" by Christina Kallery

BERLIN (Reuters) - A swan has fallen in love with a plastic swan-shaped paddleboat on a pond in the German town of Muenster and has spent the past three weeks flirting with the vessel five times its size, a sailing instructor said Friday. He's not half nuts, this German swan, to love Something so near the actual, you might squint from shore, squishing sand beneath your toes, to see its broad white belly part the shining green, neck angled always toward the clouds deflecting every antic of its frenzied, mini-suitor. This happens, right? Who among us with a single red corpuscle hasn't dug in and waited the whole doomed thing to its conclusion, wanting some chill beauty to paddle its slow turn toward us on the man-made lake? In your case, not a Muenster tourist boat, let's hope, but more like the narcissist with lovely eyes and a voice to unzip things to, or the one that cut the right profile but sank like a Petoskey stone. But still, in spite of tearstains, sucker punches, fists to the glass jaw, the dumb heart beats, and tries again. See, there he goes, beak agog and hissing at the rival birds, wings spread to seem more menacing, black webbed feet paddling frantic through the algae. Then night sets and a silver moon beams down on bird and boat, afloat alone, and in the pale light looking for all the world like the shape of love. ————————————– Christina Kallery called us from Ann Arbor, MI. voicemailpoems.org/submit/ facebook.com/voicemailpoems x.com/voicemailpoems bsky.app/profile/voicemailpoems.bsky.social instagram.com/voicemailpoems