The Sparrow

So strong are we to fly in fighter planes

A hundred miles above the fleecy clouds

The world below is surely lost to sight

We turn the metal engine of our might

And bank into the sun at dizzy speed

Above us all is blank and heavenly blue

Victorious, soaring, man exults anew

With each sortie through the airy deep

Yet cannot we launch blithely from the ground

With wingèd arms outstretched above the grass

And veer across the gilded meadow green

A hundred feet above the crumbly ground

As does a dappled sparrow in the hedge

This I dreamed when I was just a child

And this is still my futile dream today

To be as like a sparrow on the wing

To be released from all of our invention

Simply fly as does the little bird

And seek a worm upon the sunlit ground

Arjun L. Sen

2010