fly with fluid    wingbeats
in swift bursts of     straight flight
execute       quick tight
turns and dives     rarely gliding

flying a few      inches above
the ground or water    append their nests
in mud to      human structures

under eaves     the sides of barns
along bridges     reservoirs
feeding in open     habitat

places unclaimed     by other uses
than the small drab     masonry
of the unendangered     unexceptional

except in how     they ravel the air
up up then flick     down flare back
into their cup-     shaped nests again

to meet the open     hunger of
their chittering     naked young
lacking still     the rufous breasts
the long tails     deeply forked