leda

Sue Woodward

arriving in good time not believing my luck if i could get this part it would be the break of a lifetime a sidekick leads me over thick grass to a river bank an umbrella a lounger champagne in an ice bucket one glass he fills the glass i settle on the lounger sip on popping bubbles in dry heat like the karoo in a drought my body under an electric blanket my cheeks flushed with the champagne the heat prickles of sweat dotting my neck i sip watch the condensation on the bucket drip onto the grass he fills the glass i wait i sip the air rising in vertical hazy waves i am melting into the lounger the lounger creaks a heavier weight covers my body a feather boa around my neck feathers brushing my cheek my ear nibbled i can’t breathe can’t move with the weight my arms pinioned a stink of slime and underwater murk a bass drum beating on my chest in my chest a small tapping to get out my breaths shallow so faint they stop before i die they kick start i am breathing the heaviness slides to one side the weight is gone the sidekick appears we’ll let you know and shows me out

Many writers of Greek mythology have told the story of Zeus’ rape of Leda. Zeus desired the beautiful Leda, and in order to seduce her changed himself into a swan. After the rape, Leda slept with her own husband, Tyndareus, the King of Sparta. The two encounters resulted in two fertilised eggs, each with a set of twins, Helen (of Troy) and Pollux, and Castor and Clytemnestra.

I have given the scene of the rape a contemporary setting based on allegations from within the #metoo movement.

Poem originally published in New Coin (December 2019) and in ‘between the apple and the bite’ (Modjaji 2021)

Featured on 12 August 2021