Little Sparrow

Our worlds were not meant to intermingle
and yet
here we are

You are so brown
so plain
a dark little sparrow

OH but the glossy sheen
you give yourself
the careful grooming

Covers your brown,
brown little feathers so well
Ah, how your artifices glitter and sparkle

I can’t imagine what I am
Who I look to you
You see me unruffled, unprimed

I only glimpse my visage in passing
the clash, the jumble, jangle,
mess that I am

I am no bird, no sparrow
I am the cat,
the feral beast on the prowl

I do not sparkle
I have no sheen
I present myself only as I am

Your companions gather about you
a clutch, a brood,
a harem of little sparrows

gathered mass of matching hair
dull colored garb
with the guise of glamour

They turn as one to view me
synchronicity, beauty
in these movements

How their too white teeth sparkle
as they grimace at me
show their surprising wolf grins my way

This greeting is fierce,
competetive,
I am taken aback by it, them, you

They will eat me whole,
I know it,
I feel it

They will tear me asunder
with those sharp white grins
YOU will

I had thought myself safe
a cat among the birds,
a sparrow could not wound me

Oh, my foolishness
how I thought your words glittered,
how I clutched them to my breast

I believed them genuine
gems, truths
I grasped for them

I wanted to pluck them from your mouth,
string them to wear
as a pearl necklace

Pearls like the too white teeth,
the artificial glow
of faux LOVE

Only now do I see your lies,
your cowardice,
your tarnished mask of civility

Only now do I recognize
beneath the veneer, the sheen
is a little brown sparrow

You were always a part of the group
with the superficial gleam,
the brood, the clutch, the terrifying mob of sparrows

How did I ever think
you could, you would
fly on your own?

You are hobbled
You are happy thus hobbled
You will always be hobbled by their protection

And by yourself,
yes, yourself,
little brown sparrow

When you speak to me, now,
I see only the dark tunnel of your mouth,
your throat

I see only darkness, little brown sparrow,
the empty void
of your words