It is nothing magnificent – nothing bough breaking or time changing. It won’t cause petals to curl blushed toes in anticipation, and it won’t cause trees to drop golden leaves in rapturous applause.
And yet, the song spills on – unabated, unfiltered. Just pure, untethered joy. It flutters into the sky, a silver disc, a twisting staccato series of lines.
On paper – the song seems so – dull. It is flattened to normality, punched into the stave with the grace of a turtle attempting to fly. It is almost humiliating; reducing a sliver of silver to a dark smudge on a five-pronged textbook line.
And yet, in the skies, it is free.
A musical skipping rope for lost invertebrates carouseling through a fairground of clouds. A guiding beacon for every sparrow who has ever been – every sparrow who will follow.
The sparrow spins a silver song;
won’t you sit a while, and spin with me?
Poem by Alicia Hayden
Alicia Hayden is a wildlife artist, filmmaker, animator, writer, and photographer, with a degree in Biological Sciences from Oxford University; currently studying for a Master’s in Wildlife Filmmaking at the University of the West of England (UWE), Bristol. https://aliciahayden.co.uk/