The world is filled with ghost-
shaped spaces. Two chimney
swifts descended into the
house. We were away for
weeks. How long did the tiny
feathers hang in air before
settling on stair? The stairs
must have seemed the road
to sky. The birds followed them
upward. We found one belly up
in submission to the light,
the other stiff and clinging
to a window screen, holding
onto the sky. It took a ladder
to bring it back to earth, to deliver
the news of its death to its body.