A Surfeit of Swans - Ed Coletti

[Larry Robinson]

A Surfeit of Swans

Floating on the river Rhine somewhere
between Amsterdam and Cologne
confronted by this surfeit of swans
do not have a clue what to do with them 
as a group when one in a painting 
at Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum 
appeared so snarlingly huge that
it was said to portray a creature
whose wings could shatter
the legs of a grown man like me
were I to dive now into their midst,
open myself to a melee of wind-whipping murder.

	- Ed Coletti