Dead Sea Sparrow
Gray gobbler of dry seeds,
evolved to twist a Gordian nest
in a jagged crown of salt cedar,
unaccountably brash,
chitters bursts of psalm
from scrub tamarisk.
Its call of Tzip Tzip Tzip
pitches a promised land
to its own dun kind,
defies the real and present
risk of being cast out
of that acrid Eden
as wilderness, scorched
by pesticides, corrodes
into wasteland and countless
species are counted
down toward extinction–
from few to one to none.
A Nazarene child shaped
birds from sodden clay
and, holding those playthings,
blew on mudded wings
until the sparrows took flight
into an innocent sky.
Now these small messengers
cannot be conjured from earth
into the thin air of being.
Still, this one bird, clinging
to the cedar’s harrowed bark,
exalts its Shabbat song.
Note: In the gnostic Infancy Gospel of Thomas, the child Jesus clapped his hands to bring life to twelve sparrows he had formed from soft clay on the Sabbath day. The Qur’an 5:110 refers to Jesus breathing life into a clay bird.
Dan MacIsaac is a poet from Vancouver Island. Brick Books published his collection, Cries from the Ark. His poetry received the Foley Prize from America, and has appeared in many journals and anthologies, including, Stand, Magma, Agenda, Presence, and Homage to Soren Kierkegaard.
Amethyst Review 