Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them
will fall to the ground apart from your Father.
And even the hairs of your head are all counted.
So do not be afraid;
you are of more value than many sparrows
(Matthew 10:29-31).
Yes, teacher, but
they sell sparrows to the poor
to sacrifice at the altar
alongside the rich man’s bull.
Yes, granted, the priest
consecrates the bird
with a prayer and a knife.
It carries the poor man’s sin
in a final wingless flight
upward in smoke,
a fragrance, supposedly,
pleasing the deity.
We honor the sparrow,
respect the little blood spill,
let the bird rest in the fire.
It does more for the poor man
than the rich man could.
But like the rich man’s bull,
it has no idea what it is doing,
who it is. It knows the feel of flight,
not the feel of honor, never needed it,
at least not before giving over
its life, as if it can do
anything else in the end.
You say I am of greater value.
You say, “Lose your life to find it,”
like the sparrow, only unlike it,
I know the feel of the self at stake.
I can take wing, escape, living but less,
or consent to the knife, sacred.
Let me hear your prayer over me,
your blessing.
Then I can dare rise
like smoke, fly from myself,
pleasing God.
Related Posts
Sacrifice: Making Yourself Sacred
Dr. Jesus, Peace, and Apocalypse: Sermon on Matthew 10:24-39
The Authenticity of Birds (poem)
Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you (Matthew 5:11-12).
Photo by anish lakkapragada on Unsplash. Public Domain.
Oh, I do love this.
Oh, I do love hearing that from YOU! It’s been about 50 years since you offered such encouragement for my poetry, and I haven’t forgotten. As I wind down my psychotherapy career, I am winding up the poetics. I hope to be more productive with it in the latter years.