A swan and woman gyre in orgy, jagged
strands of DNA. Her thighs twist, rawboned,
in his thunder of wings. This is a Baroque leitmotif:
woman seduced by divinity. Woman

undone by a god. The arches of her feet
seize. Her fear muscles her forward under
his neck’s spiraling heat. His head coups
in the sever between her breasts. Her nipples

harden. Her lips lash his serrated bill.
Is this the way my grandfather took my uncle—
blood in the air,
another broken wall?
Did his own father enter his body like a bestial
burning? Was it white rush, dark webs
in a sudden blow? Rape is never this beautiful.