The Endings of Swan Lake The beginning is a lot less complicated – Prince Siegfried goes a-hunting for a swan And is about to bag it when it turns Into Odette (a princess, naturally) They fall in love But there’s a hitch: She’s only human during nights Because a bad guy’s cast a spell on her (And lots of friends, it turns out too) That’s hard to break unless The prince will love her for eternity So far so good Siegfried prepares for marriage But is duped into declaring his intentions For Odile A double who has masqueraded as his girl Thus the spell is reinforced The prince discovers the duplicity And begs forgiveness of Odette To whom he dedicates his heart Too late She drowns herself and Siegfried joins her in the lake, Rothbart (the evil sorcerer) is destroyed And all the incidental swans return to human form In other versions Siegfried dies, Odette remains a swan Or she’s restored to human form To marry him Or Siegfried’s left alone to mourn Her death by suicide Or both turn into swans after they kill themselves There’s even one where Rothbart kills his rival and escorts Odette To heaven They’re happy all the same No matter which They have to be When laundry’s been eliminated from the list ________________________________________________________________________ Emanuel E. García, Sinking In, One Hundred Poems, 2013 |