The Theme of Hope

A Simple Life
by Merry Marinello © 1989

I sit in my windowsill
bright yellow-orange maple leaves
wafting off the nearby tree.
A few sparrows dive out of this tree
pretending they too are falling
for winter.

Their weight gives them ‘way,
these rock-like sky-divers
strut-stuttering after a claw-screetched landing.
Bursts of leaf-pillows
echo in rustle-whispers to God
and blanket their feather heads.

He smiles

A breeze
carries leftover exhaust,
that stale air
unrelenting now in my nostrils.
Tires squeal again
tires—
my ears fearing the metal against metal crunching
through a shattered windshield—

I wait
watching matchbox cars below
ignore the almost impact,
headlights crying frozen tears
against the cement—
chink
chink

How far is it between you and me?

We wait
while our schedules box boxes between us,
hard, calendar boxes
longing
to be filled with sparrow-scratches—

I want the life of a sparrow
sky-diving with jet-pointed wings
speed
wind-whipping my hair,
my soul breathing rustle-whispers to God
full air,
the air He breathed into my nostrils
when I was young—

Come sky-diving with me
and then you and I
can breathe our rustle-whispers to God in unity
leaf-pillows bursting oranges and yellows
above our numbered hairs—

He smiles

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