Life is Up

Diana Cole

Outside my window, two sparrows go at it.

I read in the paper that the car crashed into a wall —

speed limit doubled, bricks collapsed, neck broken.

In a moment it’s over, a quick flutter of wings.

His bed was still warm, the pillow, dented;

a half-finished paper, yesterday’s jeans on the floor.

The sparrow falls back. Life is up and away.

There was the head-rush, the rain, the hard-pressed pedal.

Was it so good—the way acceleration left the body behind?

Diana Cole is a professional singer and teacher. Her poems have been published in Sahara, Blueline, Ibbetson Sreet Press, The Aurorean, The Christian Century, The Chaffin Review, and others. Her poem “Though I Walk,”set for double chorus by Thomas Stumpf, was selected by the Pharos Music Project and performed in New York City.

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