Swan cubs and Trampoline

Trampoline


There was a child

who barely managed

to climb up on a trampoline

in a garden in

the middle of the night.

Then she stood there,

hands on each side and

practiced not jumping.

Not a single human noticed her

but the grass grew a little faster

as if it wanted to get up

to the child

and her silent game.

- Look, this is how quiet I can be,

the child said to a star in the sky

but

then

the dogs started barking

several alarms went off

light was lit all over the house

someone came out with a flashlight

swinging it around like a gun

and everyone, who were in the shadows,

got hit hard instantly.

The entire garden withdrew.

The child, already far away down the street,

and further off through a sideway

occupied with clenching a

small lump of her own darkness

ran and ran

until she found her cave again.

Inside the cave

grass grew directly from the stone floor

and it enshrouded her completely

in a cocoon of green beginnings.

When she woke up again

all the bats around her

hanging from the ceiling

opened their eyes too.

- It’s time to fly, the night said quietly

and it was as if there was a star

in each of her cells

when the fluttering started up.

 

Swan cubs

 There were six swan cubs on the path

and on each side their parents, protectors

were ready to hiss and be threatening to anyone

who came too close.

This scenery surely had stopped several people

in their tracks, one man with a giant poodle on a leash

looked especially worried, that poodle with a lot of curly

hair cut like a bouquet with no individual flowers.

One man who arrived at the spot was “not going to take it”

so he passed the swans and their cubs trying to look cool,

which was very funny and if I could recognize him again some day,

I would thank him for the entertainment.

The swan cubs were lying there as if in an invisible nest and then

the man and the giant poodle were the next ones to try to

get by with some dignity or in an elegant way or whatever was

the ambition there, but it was clumsy and he got a real hiss on his way.

They are just trying to protect their cubs, I said, as if it was not obvious

and he said that he understood that but they really scared him,

he was very honest, not trying to be cool, behind me a young couple

was still waiting for some clue to go, for their turn.

Then a woman came running before making a full stop right behind me, asking

if she could get by them, and I said yes, but you will probably be hissed at, then

I realized that this was my clue to start moving, so I did with her right behind me

slowly moving past this swan family, I got a hiss that was more of a symbol than a threat.

The woman thanked me shortly and ran off again, and there were

some seconds where I just felt like a happy merging between a gentleman

and a human shield, and this path, sometimes I forget it exists before walking

there again, it always makes me so calm with its green explosion of leaves.

It will soon be the season for blackberries and on this path there are plenty

and the scratches one gets from the thorns are not only unavoidable but

part of such a day, ending with a basket full, on my way back today

I looked forward to that and smiled when I saw that the swan cubs were still there.

They had not moved an inch and

they radiated being so safe in their own time, so fluffy and grey,

it was a soft zone carefully molded by gentle wings,

an invisible fence made of swan spirit clay.


Rune Kjær Rasmussen

is an animist, writer, singer, and occasional painter from Denmark.

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