SPARROW

Wings shut and toes curled inward

you are warm still

and limp

giving your weight to me

(I thought you’d weigh nothing)

my hand a trough,

a cradle

rocked to stillness

half closing half opening

around

the pool of your small body

your head drops

loose like a marble

into the crook of my forefinger

my palm filled

with your feathers

my palm growing hot

till I see it for myself

the world you were leaving behind

brighter than ever in the glass

the forest shining as you rushed towards it

with an extra thrust of the blood to your heart

which did not stop when you dropped

your body to the ground

but opened and flew on—               O the trees—

   O all the air with the leaves shining—