A Sparrow

In an instant you dissolved

into the dawn.

I reached my fingers

into the light from the sun

            reflecting off the white snow. 

This is when I

Know.  Looking at you was like watching

the telephone poles whiz past the car window. 

Touching you was like falling

into snow angels.  

Every second with you was a bird waiting

            for the cage door to open.

Now

gray, they air between  

your breath and mine, grows stale with

my cough and your stagnancy,

            it dies inside the wind, floating away.

Walking down the alley

behind Subway, feathers

strewn across the ground

a decapitated sparrow.