Joyce Parkes is published in literary magazines, journals and anthologies in Australia, the UK, Finland, Canada, Germany, the US, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Greece and the Netherlands. She writes in her third language.

Joyce Parkes

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Black Swans and Cygnets

A friend asked if she would tap
into waves of the river write,
oh yes she thought then said,

not always though - being
mindful to define (to be sure,
to be sure) ripples above

and below the water-line of
the Swan River, where rowers,
divers, black swans and cygnets

move in distinct directions, in
the city of five universities,
in the City of Light.*

* So named by John Glenn.