marketa reads in the evenings

i like to walk

it's too hot, too smokey

park paths too worn

too tired

maybe it's the new norm

i wish myself down the coast

big sur

redwoods, slip back in time 

a different paradigm

healthier

less fractious, was it less fractious

i look out the window

watch the sparrows across the street

~

chicks fledged a month ago

remnants

of the nest in the v of the cvs sign

chicks indistinguishable 

from the adults

urban dwellers seeking what we all seek 

sustenance, shelter, one another

thriving in the city

one big, happy, flighty, squabbling family

figuring it out, making it work

hardscrabble

opportunistic, persistent

i'm tempted to say unflappable

but i won't, i will say inspirational

~

colin tells a story

he's ten

a new bb gun

he shoots a sparrow

kills it

the immensity of the act

burrows into his psyche

two and half 

decades later he recounts the event

as if it happened an hour ago

says

hardly a drop of blood

a life lesson

less so for the sparrow