The following poem was published in the PoetryMagazine.com on-line anthology, Summer, 2014, edited by Mary Barnet and Andrena Zawinski.
The Sparrow And The Nest
The Spring of ’62
my son & I used to watch a bird
a sparrow I guess
build a nest at the top of our drainpipe
on the roof of our apartment building
We watched him
carry bits of leaf & twig
paper
even string to it
& the nest grew
until one day we noticed
that the bird wasn’t around anymore
& wondered why
but forgot about it
until June
when there was an eclipse of the sun
& we went up on the roof
with a cardboard box
with a split in it
& a mirror & dark glasses
to protect our eyes
& saw the half-finished nest
at the top of the drainpipe
& went over to take a look at it
It was delicate
and webbed with sticks
as well as a spider could do it
& I wondered again why the sparrow had quit
when I saw this green string
caught on the galvanized metal
beneath the nest
but stretched taut
down into the mouth of the pipe
& pulled on it
until the dried body of the sparrow came up
hung from the string
by its neck