fly with fluid wingbeats
in swift bursts of straight flight
execute quick tight
turns and dives rarely gliding
flying a few inches above
the ground or water append their nests
in mud to human structures
under eaves the sides of barns
along bridges reservoirs
feeding in open habitat
places unclaimed by other uses
than the small drab masonry
of the unendangered unexceptional
except in how they ravel the air
up up then flick down flare back
into their cup- shaped nests again
to meet the open hunger of
their chittering naked young
lacking still the rufous breasts
the long tails deeply forked
