They made love in a hazel grove,
beneath the little suns of dew;
dry leaves and twigs got in their hair
and dry dirt too.
Swallow’s heart, have
mercy on them.
They both knelt down on the lakeshore,
they combed the dry leaves from their hair;
small fish, a star’s converging rays,
swam up to stare.
Swallow’s heart, have
mercy on them.
Reflected in the rippling lake,
trees trembled, nebulous and gray;
O swallow, let them never, never
forget this day.
O swallow, cloud-borne thorn,
anchor of the air,
Icarus improved,
coattails in Assumption,
O swallow, calligraphy,
clockhand minus minutes,
early ornithogothic,
heaven’s cross-eyed glance,
O swallow, knife-edged silence,
mournful exuberance,
the aureole of lovers,
have mercy on them.