Beauty is Imperfection

The boy sparrows on the cigarette sidewalk
Came smiling dressed with their black beards
I told my son about the alpha males
How these tiny black chins
Meant those sparrows swung the biggest dicks.
But then I had to add the part about empathy and pity
And how to feel for and not dominate what is small
What is brittle, what is beauty—so he can be,
You know
a
better
human.
My burden and my fear, to teach him softness.
And meanwhile nature mocked me
While those tiny little birds hopped around
Pushing the girl birds out of the way
And swinging their tiny, little sparrow dicks
On the cigarette sidewalk.