Cinco Cisnes

by eleanorgullandwrites

An old lady in a trench coat leaned against a tree that winter had stripped bare. Her wizened face was softened by four o’clock sunlight; flooded with a kind of contemplative peace. I followed her gaze to see a black swan and its four cygnets, so close to adulthood you could almost see their grey down darkening. A father and daughter stopped to offer them bread. A young couple filmed their lazy descent into the lake. I watched from afar, music swelling in my ears – not a part of the moment, nor separate from it.

It was just an ordinary August afternoon, light and cold.