Swallows

It was once thought that swallows wintered on the moon, or morphed into field mice beneath the autumn swoon of clouds, or slept beneath wavelets on the floor of shadowy ponds and lakes until the sudden lure of springtime roused them from the kingdom of the dead. Early Christians believed they swirled around the head of Jesus, giving comfort as he bore his heavy cross, or they were harbingers of heaven after loss. Today I look above the eaves as autumn blooms in the deep well of the sky, my house's empty rooms echoing only wind, the memory of their song. They have flown south for winter, which here is dark and long.