Birds

The countless flapping
Across the darkening skies —
New whispers arise, such are tales behind
Each wing, stretching pulse in distance.
Longing shadows flutter down,
As the last blaze of day wraps on them
To draw both light and dusk as partners
Mingling ease, faint joy as unto silence.

Unconfined now, visions thorough
Dance with the shadows built by flight;
Bindings soothe before the timbre draws
And in that lull, the woven notes merrily bless,
These fluttering names untold —
All absorbed in the colours
The eye loves still, beyond this memory.

Wings come back, lonelier against the grow;
Yet how mournful and sweet,
As speak once round
In a dusk unfurled, these hidden things
Gather by my hand like circling stars,
Like a father cupped,
Where lover waits entwined in lifelike, bright.

This heart wades on, wanting the flight,
As whispers bow again, so loved, so new.

• Louis MacNeice