Swan Lake + I have tried, but I can never explain a leaving
by Vic Nogay
Swan Lake
i do wonder / at all the ways men spit / into nature’s current—mow down a forest / to build 200 houses, all / alike, predictable, safe, / then plant trees down every street / and leave space for a little park / make sure to build a pond for the view, for the brochure / but don’t let any ducks or geese come around / put fake plastic / swans in the ponds / at the park to scare the geese away / don’t those stupid birds know it’s not for them?
in the winter, the pond freezes / the hollow swans, trapped / in the middle. sometimes / someone thinks they’re real / gets scared / calls the cops / please save them! / but then put them somewhere else or kill them for all i care / they can’t stay here / i can’t have them / shitting on my lawn.
I have tried, but I can never explain a leaving
Although the moon is not an honest timepiece, my dad called them midnight hikes when we would walk into the wooded Michigan winter to the clearing, sit and listen to the coyotes move, calling each other on their travels. Sometimes he’d build a fire if I wanted to stay. Those late fire nights I’d fall half asleep, my whole body tucked in his coat, and swoon in the brew of wood smoke and hot skin and frozen pines. I was ten the night the fire died. I woke alone and found no tracks. The air was still.
VIC NOGAY
Vic writes to explore her traumas, misremembrances, and Ohio, where she is from. She is an animal cruelty investigator and a mother. Her work appears or is forthcoming in perhappened mag, Versification, Free Flash Fiction, Ellipsis Zine, and other journals.
LT: linktr.ee/vicnogay
IG: instagram.com/ohiov
