A scatter of Vaux swifts, swallow-like \u201ccigars with wings,\u201d pluck<\/p>\n
insects from the afternoon air. As dusk approaches<\/p>\n
the scatter thickens into clouds of dozens, then<\/p>\n
hundreds of chirping birds revolving in the sky.<\/p>\n
The swirls over-lap, separate, coalesce again<\/p>\n
into an ever-darkening cloud, swoop ever-<\/p>\n
nearer a chimney. Suddenly, the cloud\u2019s leader<\/p>\n
drops into the darkness of the chimney and the others,<\/p>\n
hundreds of them, follow instantly. The air becomes still<\/p>\n
and silent as if the house has inhaled, has sucked birds<\/p>\n
from the air like a run-in-reverse video<\/p>\n
of clotted smoke<\/p>\n
streaming from<\/p>\n
the chimney.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u2022 Richard Stokes, a Juneau resident since 1971, writes about nature, which he loves, and aging, which he is doing.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n To submit to Writers\u2019 Weir, email your poetry, fiction or creative nonfiction to managing editor Mary Catharine Martin at maryc.martin@capweek.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A scatter of Vaux swifts, swallow-like \u201ccigars with wings,\u201d pluck insects from the afternoon air. As dusk approaches the scatter thickens into clouds of dozens, then hundreds of chirping birds revolving in the sky. The swirls over-lap, separate, coalesce again into an ever-darkening cloud, swoop ever- nearer a chimney. Suddenly, the cloud\u2019s leader drops into […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":7,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[74],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-23414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","tag-arts-and-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23414\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23414"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=23414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}