Black Sparrow

Black Sparrow

Sing great voices!

I can picture my favorite poet
on grainy black and white film,
half-drunk,
completely unshaven,
smoke billowing thinly
from an unseen ash tray.

He doesn't speak
but grumbles
as he flicks away words
floating around his face,
then pauses
to remember a feeling.

I don't love this man uncritically.
I hear his words
and take them at face value.

Yet I do I love him,
though I'm glad I didn't know him.
He was heavy
and I probably would've tried
to carry him for awhile.

I like the way his words
slowly sliced him open
to reveal a soft interior.

He shows me
I'm not who I think I am,
and I don't have to do
what's not mine to be done.

---

You begin saving the world by saving one man at a time;
all else is grandiose romanticism or politics.
~ Charles Bukowski