Bittersweet Surrender
by Michael Escoubas
After a sculpture in the Bargello Museum in Florence, Italy,
by Bartolomeo Ammannati

It is not as if Leda invited
the Swan entry
into her privacy. Even the most

cosmopolitan of women would rather
be asked, be shown
at least a semblance of consideration.

Not here, not by Zeus, King of Grecian myth.
Who among us
foresees the shape of history, how

the most common act of lust or love
may leave the world
unhinged by feathered sweet caresses?

Was Leda’s ecstasy real or feigned?
Was she, like Mary,
greatly troubled, though highly favored

by the Lord? In an age when women
are emerging
as agents of change, brokers of power,

their calloused hands long denied justice—
where would history be
without entry into Woman’s privacy?
 

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