The Dying Swan

One morning along a misty riverbank,
I walked in an ecstasy of silence,
Seeking out a simple transcendence,
From all the profanities of the present,
By following the gentle waters flow,
As wherever it went, I would follow,
When I came across the cruelest crime,
The broken bones of beauty itself,
The ravened remains of a swan maiden,
Her flesh flayed and sanctity raped
Hanging from hooks on a fishing line,
Wings outstretched, as if a white cross,
A broken silver chain upon one foot,
And as I watched the life die in her eyes,
Framing all her agonies with a why ?
The rising sun set in its Eastern cradle,
And the day grew dark, malign and baleful.

Her partner was waiting nearby, weeping,
Afraid to leave, still loyally waiting,
For his love to return and end his misery,
And in an instant I saw the world as it is,
No longer hidden beneath veils of illusion,
For broken now was the spell of Lear,
And every strangers face passing by,
Beneath their make up, smiles and conceits,
Was withered and old, haggard and weak,
And I knew our nation was accursed,
That the future lay dead in its hearse,
And no more would the sacred marriage,
Offer hope to heroes on their journey,
And raise Albion to its highest heights,
For now must come the darkest night,
The sacred blood that stained our soil,
Means every sin is to be soon revealed,
And as pus oozes from a festering boil,
Sick souls will become their own gargoyles.









POACHERS using bread 
attached to fishing lines are snaring and butchering 
legally-protected swans from the River Nene in 
Peterborough.

Witnesses say once the swans are snared by the barbed bread they are hauled to the shore and clubbed to death behind nearby bushes.

An examination of the klling grounds by The Evening Telegraph and the RSPCA uncovered the dismembered carcass of a mute swan and feathers and wing bones in bushes by a car park off Potter’s Way, Peterborough.

“Any bird that has been treated in such a way would die a terrible death and so I want anyone who sees this going on to get in touch with me or the RSPCA.”

http://www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk/n...illed_1_367438