Psalm for the Single Song Sparrow
Again the winter sky is a muted blue
and again we are on our way to school.
We pass the tree we pass most mornings.
Except for a single song sparrow
the tree is bare. You tell me today
is Third Grade Art Day, that you can paint
whatever you want. You say I love you
as if you won’t always need me to say
I love you back, as if you are ready to hear me say
though much of this world is close to a circus act—
that the lions and the tightrope walkers
play their parts—you can still be brave
on those days when truth is a tune
you sing alone.
and again we are on our way to school.
We pass the tree we pass most mornings.
Except for a single song sparrow
the tree is bare. You tell me today
is Third Grade Art Day, that you can paint
whatever you want. You say I love you
as if you won’t always need me to say
I love you back, as if you are ready to hear me say
though much of this world is close to a circus act—
that the lions and the tightrope walkers
play their parts—you can still be brave
on those days when truth is a tune
you sing alone.
May 2024
Natalie Marino is a poet and physician. Her work appears in Gigantic Sequins, Mom Egg Review, Plainsongs, Pleiades, Rust + Moth, Salt Hill, South Florida Poetry Journal, West Trestle Review and elsewhere. She is the author of the chapbook Under Memories of Stars (Finishing Line Press, 2023). She lives in California. You can also find her on Instagram.
Art: Fox and Lion by Kat Cervantes