Swallows

Swift October sunset swarms Rising in the disappearance beams of setting sun Ten minutes gone there were none in sight Nine and a few lifted to dive and feed on mosquitoes Multiplying as they gathered for the dance Soon the sky was boiling with them Crowding ever tighter into darker screaming clouds Half seen as flowing streams of mirrored smoke Meeting to swell and swoop like schools of baitfish Must appear to hungry hunters Suddenly It happens The cloud swirls and darkens into a twisting tornado of diving birds The sound of thousands of wings braking crackles across the standing corn In less than twenty seconds more than a million birds are settled for the night What must they feel in that moment from heaven to earth That kamikazi roller coaster swing together diving scream of life That celebrates an ending of the day And leaves us to the night Uplifted