A Sky with NO Swifts

By: Maggie Hess

Narrated by: Anna Purdom

This book you will find split like a seed, half walnut, half pecan. Some girl might have found two husked nut bodies only to grip them tight in her fist and crack them together. Maybe you that girl, hungry for the meat of the land. Or just curious about the wonder of nature.

It is probably too little of a book, but it is what I offer. It begins with 17 Haiku taken from a walk near a waterfall. It ends with the collection of "Swift Poems" I have gathered since the little birds first swept me off my feet over five years prior. There have been times chimney swifts seemed to storm the neighborhood, often in the evenings before ducking into the smoke stack of the house across the road from us. Such minuscule creatures to be so significant. They grew on me hard and fast as I followed their progress, how they migrate through the seasons and disappear entirely at times.

Eat these nuts together. Let them be short and sweet as they are. Find in them peace and joy.

©2023 Maggie Hess (P)2023 Maggie Hess