Sparrow Soup

LOUIS E. BOURGEOIS

When I was a child growing up
in the backwaters of Southeast
Louisiana, I often shot sparrows
and turned them into soup;
that was the rule — if you killed
something, you had to eat it,
and I liked killing sparrows.
Therefore, Miller Williams, I just wanted
you to know that sparrow soup is
quite delicious, especially when
there’s cardinal and blue jay
to go along with it
in a casserole.

Louis E. Bourgeois is an instructor of English at the University of Mississippi in Oxford and serve as poetry editor of the university’s literary journal, Yalobusha Review. His first book of poetry, Olga, is forthcoming in 2005 from Word Press.

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