Lark Sparrow
What light flickers on? What invisible filament
guides them on their long migration north?
May, and already they tumble toward this cathedral green,
graze on grasshoppers, the slender, uneaten seeds
of the previous fall. Both blessing and burden,
this trembling display, the courtship they shoulder
restoring the species. Meanwhile, frail petals unfold
on the forbs, rise from the thatch of last season,
this noisy pond, that placid field, this dusty Earth,
their rusty patches, their melodic song, singing, singing.
Notes
This paean to the sparrows' spring courtship song is a human melody in itself, with the frequent alliteration ("green, / graze on grasshoppers"; " Both blessing and burden"; "frail petals unfold / on the forbs") and the occasional leaps into rollicking dactylics ("trembling display, the courtship they shoulder / restoring the species"). . . . The Lark Sparrow is one of the Midwest's more easily identified native sparrows, with its striped facial pattern and long, varied song.
