i)

a black swan he says
give us a black swan
easy
easy now
no need to stir up the agon

over what very well might
be nothing
a white
swan on black water
drifting

through late evening
as the light
ebbs
and shadows lie down across
the way you came

ii)

soundtracked with low strings
with tremelo
portentous
or bearing portent
sinister modulation

of the air
enclosing stillness
the clouds’ high striated
cirrostratus
rippling in convection

as the white neck bows
and horses in the next
grey field
start and trample
shaking themselves loose