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illustration by David Cobb
They say
One swallow doesn’t make a summer
But they say lots of other things
Many a mickle macks a muckle
In for a penny in for a pound
Nonsense
I see a swallow coming home
And think summer
A swallow comes to nest
At home
And brings a second swallow
So if you see the one
You’ll soon see the other
And that is summer
Two swallows make their nest
Year on year, the same place
Only diverted by bigger, uglier birds like gulls
Gulls can destroy
They are predators
And if wee swallows nest
Where vicious gulls go
Gulls win
It’s nature
Happily my swallows nest
Safely
Safe space to lay tiny eggs
Hatchlings hopefully will know
A place of safety
Will grow to chicklings
Fly the nest
And come home in a year or so
To be my new swallows
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illustration by David Cobb 
9 comments:
Lovely! I've got a nest full of baby doves on the balcony, for the second year in a row. In a week or two they will be all fluffy-puffy and then they will fly away...
Some really good stuff in here, Mimi - "So if you see the one/You’ll soon see the other/And that is summer" - "where vicious gulls go" - "And come home in a year or so/To be my new swallows" - excellent.
Bit hard on the poor old gulls, though.
I can be hard on gulls - they've terrorised my cats let alone the poor swallows.
Nah - don't like gulls.
Mimi, I was afraid you'd cursed the summer with all your luscious poetry about summer approaching, but it's looking nice again today. I hope the gulls are not being mean to your little feathered friends and your furs...
Funny how swallows have so much meaning, while swifts and house-martins don't. You see swallows on everything from Victorian holiday souvenirs to tattoos, meaning Memories and Promise to come back etc etc. Nobody gets tattooed with a house-martin. Or a cuckoo, and they come back every year too.
Swallows are homely, Zeph - I think that's why. House-martins are homely, too, but they also have an unhappy habit of crapping all over the patio.
Swifts are, in many ways, different: profoundly unhomely, for one thing. In fact, traditionally, they're downright evil: 'devilings', 'devil bitches', 'devil birds'.
I like them, though ("As if the bow had flown off with the arrow" - Edward Thomas, again). I quite like gulls too. Sorry.
Just seen the first ladybird of the summer. It was on a sock as I went to bring in the washing.
Ringo - I should have been more specific. It's herring gulls that are hateful. There are lots of other gulls that are graceful and beautiful - and don't attack my cats!
Lovely stuff, Mimi. No swallows here, but plenty of childhood memories of them (and seagulls) in your words. Cheers.
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