‘Swan at Low Tide’ by Mel Pryor

for Ali Northover

Once I was deep underwater
with just enough life left
to drag my eyes up to the wobbly surface

and find there a swan’s insistent feet
paddling above like a friend’s black shoes
running my way.

They sent out ripples I reached for,
lassos to haul me up
through the looking-glass lake

bleeding a little, but still breathing.
I curved into the swan’s
questioning neck,

heard a friend ask – Tell me
what’s happened? as butterfly lungs
slowly unfolded with air.

From issue #1: autumn/winter 2015

About the Author
Mel Pryor has won the Essex Poetry Competition, the Ware Sonnet Prize and the 2015 Philip Larkin Poetry Prize. Her pamphlet Drawn on Water was published in 2014 and her first full collection, Small Nuclear Family, was published in October 2015 from Eyewear Publishing.