A small bird singing questions no ear can hold, vanishing in the hush that always follows.
Listen
Lyrics
It perched on a scarecrow
that scared nothing at all
sang once at sunrise
and twice before fall
Its song bent sideways
and looped through a bell
then vanished mid-verse
with a rustle and spell
Children threw breadcrumbs
but it fed on doubt
sang a line about fire
then turned itself out
A farmer wrote the melody
on bark with a knife
played it on a fiddle
and forgot his wife
The preacher heard it backwards
and changed his sermon’s key
Said the sparrow’s tune
unlocked his knees
Once, it sang to thunder
and the sky stayed still
Once, it sang to silence—
the silence bent its will
The riddles weren’t answers
but shapes in the air
like a map made of vapor
or a name said in prayer
Some say it foretells
some say it reminds
but no one remembers
the third time it rhymes
It left behind feathers
each one a phrase
If you wear them too long
you forget your own days
So when you hear a riddle
in a tune without end
don’t sing it aloud—
just nod like a friend
About this song
A sparrow’s tune of riddles and echoes, telling truths too light to hold.
Return to: The Almanac of Impossible Folk