Waiting for Swifts

I stand at the window and stare -

as I always do these days of early May -

into the sky

willing the swifts to return
to prove the globe's still working*
even though fewer arrive
each year.

In Greece they fall
from the clouds in freak storms

and fewer remain
to fly the plague bound skies.

It's early days
for their arrival
but still I wonder

is this the year they won't return?

  

* the globe's still working taken from Ted Hughes' poem Swifts. 

**

previously published in The Poetry Kit.  

 

Our first swift flew over our street last night!