Last Sighting – Tim Dwyer

Last Sighting

……………………………………….For a friend

Now the age of grandfathers,
he hobbles to the dunes
for a last sighting of swallows
dipping close to the gritty strand.
They gather for the African migration.

Never much a dancer,
he sways with the pirouettes
as the swallows scoop
hidden nourishment from briny air.

Before they return in the Spring,
the bed becomes his camp.
His glance travels from the window
downhill to the lough.
Grey gulls and their shadows
cross the rooftops and the trees.

One day, the swallows
will fly up from the gritty strand,
careen outside his windowpane,
then circle back to the sea.

…

Tim Dwyer’s chapbook is Smithy Of Our Longings (Lapwing Publications). He will have poems in the upcoming issue of Cyphers, and in the Irish Poetry Chair Commemorative Anthology. He has recently moved from the U.S. to Bangor, County Down.