Sparrow
Narrow
Outlook
Gutter
Procreating
In a clutter
Stable straw and
Hair and feather
Slimy weather
Hell for leather.
Smoke-puff breast and
Brown-tiled back
Propped against
The chimney stack;
Cheek turned up and
Eye stabbed deep
Probing in
The rubbish heap.
One, two, three hop
Bounces she
Sparrow on the apple tree.
One, two, three hop;
Spider feet
Tangled in the swelling heat
Of moss pads saffron,
Emerald,
Gold,
Spored within tiles
Crazed and old,
Worn and wearing,
Brooding, blessed,
Porous roof on
Sprawling nest;
Thick, untidy,
Hasty, strange,
Rock of ages
Cleft for change
Of eggs to nestlings,
Shells to beaks
Questing, tonguing
Blinded squeaks;
Worms or midges,
Aphids, bread -
Ache-stretched bellies
Must be fed;
Food, bright father,
Food and quick;
Pandemonium;
Wings aflick;
Thrust and jostled
Skin-eyes peer -
There’s the world
And there’s the fear.
Sparrow
Narrow
Outlook
Gutter
Procreating
In a clutter
Stable straw and
Hair and feather
Slimy weather
Hell for leather;
That’s your lot
No matter what.
Contented be.
No sparrow falls except to Thee.
(March, 1991)
