Poetry

Black Swan Moment with Daughter

You sailed into the room with newspapers,

asked about the asterisk I'd inked against the phrase,

A Black Swan Moment.

I waxed eloquent for a while;

how Australian discoverers

thought all swans were white,

till they found black swans in their new land.

You left the room,

brought back, from your laden bookcase,

a thick hardback, just published;

The Black Swan Moment.

You agreed it was an amazing theory,

knew the philosophy that

one moment can alter

our thoughts, attitudes, lives.

I remember the two year old you,

talking incessantly;

watch you turn now,

return your book to its shelf,

glide out of the room,

towards the rest of your life.

I'd long suspected you might fly.