how fast does a sparrow's heart beat that frantic drum in its tiniest breast pocket of life that springing leaping spark chirruping competing with the roar of diesel brakes and afternoon traffic in a hungry frenzy to claim some self- enclosed space driven by ancestral flight feathers to hold on hold still remain in danger a target a morsel for some other ancestrally driven pocket of protein dragged toward the same destination as the white-knuckled primate at the helm of the machine one after another green yellow red endless march along a wandering path of despair and con- fusion and con- templation and mythology beneath the frantic sparrow's heart bursting with a song he sings in the name of relief in the name of one brief moment unbowed by the crushing weight of natural selection before the alarm triggers monday morning for a dime a dollar a song a poem for the acquisition of resources for power for a cardboard cutout opportunity for a moist pair of eyes transfixed by a dancing mobile spinning spinning overhead tracing contrast by contrast a sizzling flood of neural pathways lighting up with animal urges disguised as heavenly imperatives in the hearts of bipedal apes at a bus stop for one brief moment beating in time to bird- song on the first of april.
April 3, 2022
