Live Encounters Poetry & Writing Volume Three Nov-Dec 2026.
Swan Song, poems by Alexandra Fraser.
Swan song
At this stage in my life I have completed thirty
of the classic thirtytwo fouetté turns
Two to go
Each turn my eye returns to the fixed point
(and is that you or is it just one small dot
painted on the passing scenery)
That one still thing keeping me vertical
holding up my belief
in the laws of physics in me
I rather admire myself for not falling to the ground
a tangled torso out of breath out of strength
a mind given up control
Yes I’ve staggered a bit lost the beauty of the spin
but I’m still upright
After the final two turns I can only hope for a graceful exit
perhaps some muted applause
The accompanying music was
not of my choosing
Love’s geometry
What is that love that falls
wayside waits
blossoms in the dark
unexpectedly moonlit moth
Here at the crossroads
we might have met spun
rotations of symmetry and doubt
diced with probabilities
taken that other road
Now we play the old songs
the ones we always danced to
they ricochet
acute angles in our memory
sharp enough to stab
old bones skins
I no longer remember
the difference between
exponential or logarithmic
I doubt it matters
that youthful swirling
upwards passion
the moremoremore of it all
mood swings fouetté spins
Memory is angular
the scent there and not there
hot cut kikuyu and clover
soft honey
and a basenote singing
of crushed pennyroyal
sex in the grass and
high cirrostratus threading
the curvature of the earth
Long days watching the rain
our parallel lines don’t meet
vertical staves of discord
breathe on the cold window
write initials runes
after-thoughts
In dull light daisy petals close
they will spread again
some time later
circles and colours in the sun
Breath tobacco and wine
smoke and raspberries
your touch is hard memory
neural networks
a congruence of vertices
a four-dimensional fabrication
© Alexandra Fraser
Alexandra (Sandra) Fraser has dabbled with writing poetry all her life. She became serious about the writing 20 years ago with a creative writing Masters course. She has had 3 poetry collections published and also had poems published in both Aotearoa NZ and overseas. She lives in Titirangi Auckland with her husband of many decades, obsesses about her family and wishes she could adopt a greyhound.