Too-Rai-Skippery-Dappery-Day!

Sparrow sings an aria unpierced and defiant into the sky

Perched on a fire escape ladder outside Abuela's window

Who sits in the dark through the hot afternoon

Waiting for Hector, Dona, and Sylvie, and Mami and Papi and their city residue

Sparrow harrows his harmony straight past the flutter

Which dodges round clamor two stories above a dude

And his nascent salvation by cremolatta sorbet

'Troubadour or flaneur?'

Each lick licks away

Birdie squints towards the park where he was once young across the street

As cousins move twigs from out of the trees

They build nests in moldings and lampposts and steeples these days

Ask the bag lady why: Vicious Blue Jays!

But son they were pretty and when the Sparrow held guard at night

You couldn't tell them from bats!

I know lady, I know.

Sparrow waits on an itch, maybe under his wing

Sparrow calls on an appetite, but nah nothing.

Then Sparrow hears his song return before long

And he sings it out again, unpierced and defiant into the sky.