Wild Swans

The wind brightened
last night, carrying away
a few straggling leaves,
the last gray cloud, and soft
hissing mist until the sky
was a fair rapt blue
at moonrise.

Overhead, wild swans
emerged from cloudless
depths passing by without
sound, fluently gliding
single file and swift
as billowing sail on a fine
shimmering line between Sirius
and Orion. They were chasing
an evanescent onshore wind,
maybe the wind chased them
out over the wide sea,
I would not presume
to know.

I stood astonished
by full moonlight luminesced
pure white on pale plumes,
and watching them depart
into gathering darkness
over the bay, I wondered
if they were wild swans
at all or only a full moon
inspired whimsy.