(Cygnus atratus)

Loop bow neck
heavy head down
a raft of backfeathers all night,
now a reedy C and a flat B
tuning his long liquorice throat
to the yellow sky
calling her to his arms again
all splendid in the rising.

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Image: Olga Spessiva in Swan Lake costume, 1934  c/- State Library of NSW.

It had been blowing all night and for the past few days but this morning all was quiet on the estuary.