The Chapman School Vaux’s Swifts

By Edie Sidle
The Portland Upside
October 2009

Photo by Steve Warner

Every September since the late 1980’s, the chimney at Chapman Elementary School in Northwest Portland is home to thousands of migrating Vaux Swifts, small birds who circle the skies before sunset as hundreds of people come to watch them file into the chimney for the night.

The Swifts spiral downwards, then swing up, up.
Their wings fluttering, a syncopated rhythm,
avoiding a million crashes, with something magical.
They play, they eat, they soar.
It is time to perch on the long column of the school chimney,
the dusk deepens.
Hanging tenaciously in the narrow darkness, now silent,
a thousand wings, now still.
They rest, they wait, forty thousand strong.
Answering to an unknown code, a silent destiny.
Then, the dawn breaks and the Swifts again fly up, up,
with something magical.
Nature’s song.

For years, Edie has been involved in “business writing” but more recently has been exploring creative writing, even trying her hand at poetry. She may be reached at edeegee@yahoo.com