No-one can tell Svetlana how she got her name, for she was found sprawled between the rusted-out cattle trough and an oversized termite mound with her hair all a tither and her beak on backwards. She had been struck by lightning during the most calamitous of storms and there she lay for four long days.
Her saviour, if we could call him that, was old Branko with the fullest beard and not one hair on top who spoke only five words of the queens’ English – tis good, tis no good, and to him Svetlana - she no so good.
Yet Branko, with his golden heart and pockets full of the dust of fools, swept poor Svettie up, brushed her down and ever so gently placed her high on the hog of his bullocky dray and off they set into what looked like nothing short of the great beyond, until stumbling upon the camp of Arthur and Beryl Dunger.
Mrs Dunger took an instant liking to the wee lass with the very long legs and in no time at all had young Svetlana looking more like a Dutch treat than last year’s prized pretzel. For Svetlana’s feathers were now all a glow, her beak back where it should have been, and her previously raggedy flesh now taught and toned and more akin to the true athlete she once was.
Svetlana seldom if ever, tells folks of her cloudy past and despite once attempting to fill in the spaces of her earlier years before the lightning strike, has now resolved to only look forward and embrace every opportunity to bestow her kindness on everyone she meets. For all she really wants to do is to acknowledge and repay Branko, and Arthur and Beryl for their unswerving kindness that knew no bounds no matter who and what one may be or in the fact look like.*****************
Svettie is an original sculpture by Susan Bowers created from many layers of vintage and antique textiles over clay and wire. Click here to see Svettie in all her glory.