(This is the latest chapter of my ongoing battle with swallows.)

A Tale of Determination

The swallows have come back and I
Thought this time surely I could try
To keep their nests from my front door.

I tin-foiled all around it and
Used my straw broom to reprimand
And thought they would come back no more.

For just a bit more of insurance
I hung an owl up with assurance
It's fierceness would give tham a scare.

I was as proud as I could be.
They hadn't got the best of me.
That owl had kept them out of there.

But theni I saw them flying by
With nesting stuff and wondered why.
Had they built somewhere else instead?

Just then I glanced up at my owl.
His face was set in fiercer scowl.
They'd placed their nest upon his head.

By Joyce 06/01/06