Sparrow

[Recent cafe poem. Photo from Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, UK.]

Sparrow
…sparrows are eternity’s frail emblems
-	Adam Zagajewski, ‘Joseph Street’ 
 
Sparrow, in from Europe, alien
opportunist, red-listed there 
 
diminutive bard in dun fatigues,
indefatigable, head-cocked, pogo-
 
hopping for usable crumbs here
at the café, disjecta we so-so sapiens 
 
emit talking our caffeinated way
into ourselves, this sodden summer 
 
humming now ambiguous air
our flimsy masks obstruct.  Ah
 
sparrow, like the displaced child
skipping through ruins, bunkers,
 
camps power-blind kidadults cause, 
you warm me. Sparrow, frail, eternal,
 
spontaneous as sorrow, restlessly 
resilient, non-local as One-World’s
 
painful birth, we’ll get through this -  
you twitter in analogue - together.

~ by Peter Lach-Newinsky on July 19, 2022.