The American Swallow

1. They were all ready to go, a slow blue sluice desperate and mean, like winds, deliberate on simple designs, like simple thinking.

2. The swallow is in the open, a creature of the image, with wings made of unnumbered embryological instincts.

3. It grocery sails with each flinch of tail and wing, stirs the solicitation when away, one thing seeks another.

• Marianne Moore