Fidelity, for Swans
Mute swans mate for life.
Does lack of vocalization have any connection
to their fidelity?
Mute swans have connection to mute swans.
No lack of fidelity for swans.
For life, mate—for life.
Mute swans have their swans for life.
Have any life-connection, mate?
Mute swans lack any connection
to lack of mate. Lack of mate does mute life….
Does any mute connection, swan-to-swan, lack fidelity?
Have mute swans any vocalization?
Their vocalization does lack life.
Mute swans have mute swans for mate.
Swans have fidelity for life.
Does life lack connection
for lack of fidelity?
To life, mate.
To life!
Saint Patrick’s Cattle
In Patrician Period Ireland, early miracles of future saints
were largely performed in connection with cattle.
Early saints were patrician.
Future saints performed with cattle.
Were cattle patrician in connection
with saints?
Early saints, largely.
Future saints were early saints with miracles.
Miracles were performed in Ireland
in connection with saints with cattle.
Cattle performed with future saints.
Miracles were patrician.
Patrician saints were in early period?
Largely, largely.
In Ireland, early cattle were miracles.
Period saints were saints of cattle-connection.
In early, early, period, were cattle saints?
Saints performed miracles in Patrician Ireland.
Miracles were cattle miracles. Period.
Kathleen Winter is the author of three poetry collections: Transformer, I will not kick my friends, and Nostalgia for the Criminal Past. Her poems have appeared in The New Republic, New Statesman, The Adroit Journal, Michigan Quarterly Review, Tupelo Quarterly, Gulf Coast, and Yale Review. Awards include the Rochelle Ratner Memorial Prize, Ralph Johnston Fellowship, and Poetry Society of America The Writer Magazine/Emily Dickinson Award. Kathleen was granted fellowships by the James Merrill House, Sewanee Writers’ Conference, Cill Rialaig, and the Maison Dora Maar. She’s an associate editor with 32 Poems and lives in Sonoma, CA.
