THE SPARROW’S WHY

This morning, walking up the street,
I spotted a dead sparrow on the ground.
Immediately came an inner blurt,
“God, why this sparrow? Tell me why?”
After all, you said, “None falls to the ground
without you knowing it.”*
Was it this one’s time to die
and no longer fly and twist and turn
in a morning sky?
Tell me the story
what this sparrow did
with the gift of his or her life?
Broken shells in a nest
speak nothing except unknown next;
broken ground in the cemetery
gives only the silent scream,
“We had our turn. We had our turn.”
And only we know the answer to our “why?”
And hopefully we know it before we die.
Only we can share the answer to each other

before others spot us in the ground.

© Andy Costello,

Reflections 2008

*Cf. Matthew 10:29;

Luke 24:13-35