Sparrow

The rose-tips are topped with sucking insects
The buds despair to blossom with them there
Tipping with the weight of infestation
Ripped roses unspool disappointedly
And through the disappointment in the air
A hungry sparrow happens to hop by
As welcome as if by invitation

She gobbles up a few but soon rejects
These bloated bugs for fast food on the fly
She satisfied her curiosity

A sparrow can look for lunch anywhere
She finds the flotsam and the jetsam of
A bite of a burger and flung french fry
Part of a taco and a gummi bear
And some of yesterday's peanuts from me

Yesterday's causes are today's effects
As yesterday's hope becomes today's love
Today the seed sprouts planted yesterday

Those insects though they looked sweet from the sky
Were not what a hungry sparrow expects
Their exoskeletons were extra dry
But hungry sparrows always like to be
As scavengers the last ones to survive

She shrugs then flutters away fleetingly
And I understand because so must I
Still nobody gets out of here alive
So I turn away as I must and sigh
How this sparrow is fortunate that she
Is not to blame as these ripped roses die
She is just as she is supposed to be

A hollow-boned creature whistles goodbye
As much of the sky as I am earthbound
She leaves me by myself to wonder why
Roses like people so seldom seem free

While the hungry sparrows adapt and thrive
Seeming to live their lives effortlessly
We deal with our demons and diseases
As innocents experience has found

Juggling woes like bloated bugs in the air
We mumble through the liturgy of life
And giggle to encounter answered prayer
When it wells up within us suddenly

Then when a blossom or poem pleases
The rose is or I am redeemed to share
Since we know neither husbandman nor wife

I wish that sparrow could have saved that rose
Both were busy and had to bloom today
One was born to survive and always knows
That unlike the rose she can fly away
So she is always ready to surprise

A sparrow bloomed today if grey and small
She flew to find the freedom fate denies
Which I have never tasted anyway
Arising from ripped roses where they fall
To wipe the unbearable from my eyes
As all I am and all I have to say
A sparrow said it best though silently

I feel like I am a sparrow today

+Steven Curtis Lance



Copyright MMVIII