Painting of two swifts flying over wildflowers.
‘Common Swifts’ (1886) by Bruno Liljefors via Wikimedia Commons

Waiting to Land

Watching pigeons, blackbirds, and swifts with my infant son while suspended in quarantine

--

Before he learns the sign for milk, my son points to the top of the seven-foot high, Kahlo-blue wooden fence which protects our rooftop patio and chews invisible seed, mimicking the birds eating from a terracotta dish. Will we go see the pigeons? Can you see the pigeons? What are the

--

--

Layla Benitez-James
Tenderly

lives in Alicante. Her poems and translations have appeared in The London Magazine, The Acentos Review, Guernica, Waxwing, and EuropeNow Journal.