19 sparrows

by Pierre Joris

earlier this morning
on that leafless
(not lifeless)
bush next
to the li’l
lily pond on Shore
Road.
“Why did
you count them,”
you ask laughing,
because they were
there, I belatedly
think of answering
you now that
they’ve all flown
away to congregate
elsewhere making up
different arrays
of spare un-
numbered
spar-
rows