Send In The Swans

Following last year’s brutal coyote stalking of our summertime swan squad, our community decided it was more humane to use only decoy dogs rather than swans to keep our neighborhood relatively goose-free.

The experiment has been successful; the goose population has been almost nil. Yet, we miss watching the graceful swans peacefully gliding across our glistening ponds. In their honor, let me present (with apologies to the late Stephen Sondheim) Send in the Swans.

SEND IN THE SWANS

Time to bewitch
Weather is fair
The hot sun is shining on
The ground everywhere
Send in the swans

Cicadas twitch
Into their groove
Blue trucks from Amazon
And postal trucks too
Where are the swans?
Send in the swans

Now that we’ve swapped
From in to outdoors
Gardens we’re sowing
Doin’ our weeding down on all fours
My knees creak in pain
But no one will care
I look for signs
The swans aren’t there.

Are the geese sparse?
We should all cheer
Last year they were confident
That was last year
But where are the swans?
There ought to be swans.
Quick send in the swans.

As the goose flies
We could agree
This was a wonderful coup
Aren’t we now more carefree?
Isn’t it better to be
With no geese at play?
As the goose flies
Poop goes away.

Time to bewitch
Time to revere
Streets without geese are so great
Looking austere
And where are the swans?
Let's bring back the swans.
Well, maybe, next year.

---

---

---