This is the poem, I'll read a short poem called "Swan Song".
Which is the poem that Lois used to advertise the reading.
There's a lovely drawing that went with it.
The woman who did it was going to do leopard.
I don't know why she's was going to do leopard to advertise
the Swag Song.
But this is based on Lamarckian notion of evolution
rather than the Darwinian.
And as I understand it, in my ignorance,
as opposed to some mythical, gradual, unrecognizable method
of development in the Lamarck theory
there's a radical change.
And it's an act of will.
So if you're not satisfied, and I'm popularizing it,
with your position you can out of sheer will
change it into something else.
So in this poem, there's a vision
of swans not liking what they were
and wanting to convert to another condition.
So they're a Lamarckian swan.
I wrote this one remembering a scene in Vienna that
had a swan spot in the roses.
I just have swan [INAUDIBLE].
"A bunch of old snakeheads down by the pond carrying
on the swan tradition.
Kissing inside their white bodies,
raising and lowering their heads like ostriches.
Regretting only the sad ritual that
forced them to waddle back into the water after their life
under the rock.
Wishing they could slither again,
as they did in the old days.
Wishing they could lie again in the sun and dream of spreading
their terrifying wings.
Wishing this time, they could sail
through the sky like horses.
Their tails rigid, their white mane fluttering,
their mouths open, their sharp teeth splashing,
drops of mercy pouring from their eyes.
Bolts of wisdom from their foreheads."