The Secrets of Sparrows

Are surely of no importance,
slight as their stature.

What could a seed-eater know
of physics or philosophy?

Theirs the narrow knowledge
of fear, feeding, fucking,

of fledglings and flight,
wind arrowing over wings.

Nothing spoken, no naming
of Bernoulli's Principle.

No after-dinner discussion
of Descartes or Kant.

Only the communal chorus,
the sharing of branches.

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Mary Soon Lee was born and raised in London, but has lived in Pittsburgh for thirty years. She is a Grand Master of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association, and three-time winner of both the AnLab Readers' Award and the Rhysling Award. Her latest poetry book, "How to Navigate Our Universe," answers vexing questions such as "How to Surprise Saturn" and "How to Survive a Black Hole." She hides her online presence with a cryptically named website (marysoonlee.com and an equally cryptic Twitter account (@MarySoonLee).