Truncated Sparrow
(Reflection on seeing a sparrow crushed by a tire.)
Use me.
Abuse me.
Never try to lose me.
I know you will excuse me
If I go too far.
I am everywhere and nowhere;
I am my love’s shadow and her sunshine;
I am the smile in her eyes;
We are One.
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Yuvett Santamaria, Kasey Klein and Erin O’Riordan like this.
Victoria Stewart … Did you see this sparrow horribly mutilated just recently?
Gene Stewart… Victoria, It was last summer, I think. We were parked in downtown Bellevue. Niklaus and I were waiting in the car and a sparrow lighted on the street behind the car parked in front of us, to bathe in a small puddle or peck at a seed or something. I tapped Nikl and pointed, and for an instant we both thought, Aw, how cute. Then the car backed up, crushing the sparrow. It shocked and horrified us. It was so fucking awful. That sight, and the fact that I’d directed my youngest son’s attention to it, albeit inadvertently, has haunted me since. What a metaphor for life’s vicissitudes. Breathtaking indifference the universe shows life. So it has percolated into the existential poem above, among other things in my writing. That’s the story, and that is how various experiences that carry emotional wallop often meander through me into my words.
