Three Poems

Prayer

Like a Persian trainer of sparrows,
Fly me by rivers at the dragonflies,
Among hills I'll bring you a ladybird,
With its wing-case intact, to your palm -

But hold out your arm
And have a name for me
When I blow like the storm
Somewhere lost in a hazel bush.

Sparrows

Sparrows invite themselves and I let them
Stick their crooked looks in me. Hatched out
Here and there, in a shed, in a disused vent,
Casually conceived on a variety of front lawns -
The bold cock, born germy in a beer garden,
...