Sparrow - delicate little birds, life can be fragile for them. As Winter 2020 drew in, human lives became ever more so.

SPARROW

 

Immersed in music

my Southmead sparrows, constant companions

through all of 2020 became a flight of beauty.

 

And I thought

do they have Vivaldi as a soundtrack

in those tiny feathered heads.

 

Urgent, beating wings

unstoppable movement, settling

for such short moment.

Then the flight, soaring up as one bird.

 

They zoom to the ground

in urgent attention to peck

anxiously around 

and

 

all the while a lookout,

scans their small horizon

for the predator who stalks their world.

 

I too live in fear at this time

of an imagined or real demon

and now I understand the twitch

and shiver of sparrows.

 

When life is fragile and threat lies

all around.