<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-style: normal;" class="">Coast: Prelude and Fugue No. 9 of 24</span></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><span style="font-style: normal;" class=""><br class=""></span></div><div style="text-align: left; margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><i class="">for bell hooks</i></div><div style="text-align: left; margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><i class=""><br class=""></i></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">The legs of swans walk through water.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Whose pressure exists solely, swans say, </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">for the gauge and understanding of their black feet.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 16px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">One and fifty swans, or one, the same</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">as they coast and as they cruise.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">As fly the same they also do,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">white splashes in the sky — splashes </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">in the grey old sky.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 16px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">For the swans of all the world — each one owns The Queen.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Tell them otherwise and risk a peck you won’t forget.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 16px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">For,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">memorable and white,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">great beauty can destroy and kill.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 16px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Destroy.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 16px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Do you know what that is?</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 16px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">It is to disguise a crime in the flutter of a take-off.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 16px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Forget, like swans, the trap of owning a queen,</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">black-webbed gauges submerged and almost drowned from sight.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 16px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Black? </div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 16px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Black-webbed?</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 16px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Black beauty?</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 16px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Beauty?</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 16px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Never mind.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 16px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class="">Poverty fuels the yacht.</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 16px;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><br class=""></div><div style="text-align: left; margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;" class=""><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>- Bruce Moody</div></div></body></html>