BASIC Studios

By A.M. Sterling

 

Before we dive into Lion and Swan by A.M. Sterling, might I draw your attention to this conveniently located “hiring” sign? Yes, that’s right, Myths & Mischief is looking to welcome new faces to our crew of creatives. If you’re an artist, writer, social media maven, coding genius, or graphic designer who prefers to work remotely, we’d love to meet you!

 

 

Now, without further ado, Lion and Swan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

“I love you like a sonnet, like a ballad, like a vow.”

 

Why does each “I love you” burn like bullets grazing bird wings?   

 

“Willfully falling, floating weightless—angel, catch me now.”

 

Foolishly falling, flightless, into love’s sweet, searing stings. 

 

“In spite of broken wings and rules, our threads did intertwine.”

 

Why does each “I need you” land like a long-range missile blow? 

 

“And if the Fates did grant me you, swan, I trust their design.” 

 

Heedlessly hoping, heart-first diving into waves below. 

 

“If hope is hinged on broken wings and past promises, too,”

 

Love-drunk delusions, oh so fleeting, soon freeze to paint the rime,

 

“this path to love, though tireless trod, wound its way to you.”

 

and chill my blood that wells like woe, to scab the tears from time,

 

“Lyres play while sympathy strays, and gamblers bargain peace.”

 

which crack like lips under fingertips, war wounds won through mire.

  

“A threnody strummed my heartstrings, screaming for swiftest release.” 

 

A body bled by ice and stone knows nothing of love’s fire.  

 

“But hush, my swan, I’ll hold you now, my heartbeat like a song.”

 

So when your hand holds mine I sense a knife aimed at my back. 

 

“This fright will pass you by like storms and ships; it won’t be long.”

 

I tense, I tremble—and forearmed, I brace for your attack.  

 

“Drowned in lovelorn laments I found you in dark disquiet.”

 

When each fond word and soft caress resounds like battle drums,

 

“Two blazing souls, twin-flamed fallen stars, thread-bound in the riot.”

 

 

 

Feedback:

 

“Lion and Swan,” written by A.M. Sterling, is a beautiful juxtaposition of two perceptions that greatly differ from one another. The Lion’s introspection about how he loves the other is done through grand gestures that society has told us are pleasing. The Swan, however, is dealing with the Lion’s love in silence, riddled with pain.  

The Lion continues to weave his tale of how brilliant and special love can be, while the Swan expresses how it suffocates and stymies them into being a captive of the Lion’s hopes and dreams. The reader can feel the Swan’s annoyance with this other creature who “loves” her, yet clearly does not understand her.  

This pairing feels very much like an abusive marriage. The one who gives out the abuse and pain doesn’t view the love between them as something dark and ugly.  However, the one who is dealing with the abuse and emotional strain cannot see anything positive in the love the other gives.

The Lion says it best in the line, “And if the Fates did grant me you, swan, I trust their design.”  The Lion’s trust in the universe is absolute; for the Lion, the Fates were involved in this pairing. Possession and belonging is absolute.  The Swan was made for the Lion and no one else.  The Lion doesn’t see the prison that has been created by his beliefs or just how absolutely he is destroying the Swan’s will to live.  

There is no peace for the delicate bird caught by the careless Lion. When she says, “I tense, I tremble—and forearmed, I brace for your attack,” the reader is given a glaring sense of imminent doom.  This love, supposedly ordained by the Fates who govern all of life, is nothing but a battlefield waiting to reap another victim. For the Swan, this is not love—it is obsession, and the Lion’s desire to dictate every single moment of their lives together is clear.

The Lion has freedom, while the Swan is a caged bird with her wing feathers plucked so that she may never take flight. Even at the end, when the Lion says, “Grace my guileless heart the honor of setting yours free,” he does not speak the truth. He believes it to be true because he believes that he can fix anything that may come between them.  His meanness? His malice? There is always an apology big enough to wash it away.

The truth is that the Swan has never forgiven, but merely bent to his demands so that she will not be further hurt. The Lion sees compliance as forgiveness. The Swan knows her compliance is survival. She pens it perfectly when she says, “Your unfledged oaths toll a death march: desire, destiny, doom.”  The one who desires her, who counts destiny as written in the stars by the universe herself, cannot see all that he does to harm her—how he breaks her, how he leaves her bloodied and broken amongst his forgotten promises, how each apology is nothing more than a bandaid across a gunshot wound.

Doom is the only outcome for them both if one does not break free from the other.

This piece was a fantastic portrayal of how perception is relative to the individual experiencing a moment, how, as a society, we can downplay drama entrenched in fear while uplifting overdramatic displays of affection as truth.  Abusers are often charming; they trick onlookers into believing they are “good,” while their victim goes unheard.  Maybe not physically—but emotionally and psychologically—the scars run deep. Sterling presents a dangerous situation that the Lion views as salvation even as the Swan bitterly awaits her damnation.  The Lion seems romantic, but is that enough for society to allow the Swan’s limited freedom and sinking despair of losing herself to a being who has no right to stake a claim to them—a claim to which she never consented? On a broader scale, I can practically hear people exclaiming how romantic the Lion is, while simultaneously chiding the Swan for being overdramatic and misunderstanding how wonderful her partner is to her.

This is a judgement that happens all too often and continues that cycle of violence. which the vast majority of people don’t fully grasp. Instead, they ask why someone stays if their treatment is so bad, never realizing that their beliefs and commentary have helped turn the key in the lock of the cage to keep a “Swan” at her captor’s mercy.

• Kaie, “Monster Mama”

 

 

 

This poem reads like the two sides of a coin: one more romantic, the other more nihilistic. The poet truly captures both sides of love in a creative way, and I find myself wanting more. Lion and Swan’s voices are both very strong; Lion comes off as romantic, even though his love can be seen as controlling, to which Swan’s responses are taken as overdramatic, though they are not. This relationship between Lion and Swan is realistically very unhealthy, and the last line, /“Your unfledged oaths toll a death march: desire, destiny, doom.”/ from Swan makes us wonder how the relationship will end. All in all, I loved it and enjoyed the style of poem, the format, and the voices within.

-Jeri