by Wesley Sims

Three little sparrows 
fledged and two days 
later one floats
in a barrel of rain water.
A tiny bundle 
of tender flesh 
cloaked in gray 
and brown and black.
Feathers stubbed, unfinished.
Yellow-rimmed baby mouth.

A tiny youngster 
trying to traverse 
a vulnerable time,
struggling for balance,
but failing, falling, flailing.

A natural event,
a trivial creature,
just a baby bird, 
yet not even 
a sparrow falls 
but heaven knows
and earth is diminished.

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Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. ~ Matthew 10:29 NIV

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Wesley Sims has published three chapbooks of poetry: When Night Comes, 2013; Taste of Change, 2019; and A Pocketful of Little Poems, 2020. He has had poems nominated for Best of the Net and the Pushcart Prize. His work has appeared in Artemis Journal, Connecticut Review, G.W. Review, Liquid Imagination, Plum Tree Tavern, Quill and Parchment, Poem, Poetry Quarterly, Time of Singing, Bewildering Stories, and numerous others.