Gone South

A Welsummer rooster with red-brown and gold hackles and a dark breast in a sky-blue linen shirt under a stone-grey linen waistcoat, standing on the edge of a terracotta-tiled rooftop in Lisbon in warm evening light, pastel houses, a white church dome and a bell tower falling away towards the river under a pale, empty sky

Warm Tiles at Dusk

The swifts came in May and did not touch down once all summer. This week they left for Africa without a word, and he sits out on the warm tiles at dusk, looking up at all the sky they have left behind.

5 August 2026