Swallows: Common yet Declining And yet you’ll see them everywhere—            on telephone wire or fence rail,                      diving the swale between dunes            riding the sun-baked meadows uphill through aerials drifting on wind.     Swealwe, suala, swalue, swallow—            they swoop loose of syllables, the ancient                      names that called them down.            Iridescent blue and black, masters of the long glide and liquid reverse. How slowly they go                        from hayfield and sea-cliff, so slightly diminished            we … Continue reading Letter to America by Catherine Staples