Sparrows

She went to live in Ulm,
City of sparrows,
And so we sat in cafes by the Danube
Admiring her new life.
Sparrows hopped about
Our coupled legs
Beneath the tables.

The streets were filled
With sculpted papier-mache birds
And gift shop tat paid homage
To how a nesting sparrow
With a mouthful of straw had solved
The problem of
The Munster timber -

How to get the hefty beams
Through a narrow city gate?
The burghers twigged it.
And later it was clear that we
Too needed an answer
From the way our feet now
Tucked tightly

Under our chairs,
Withdrawn, apart
And still.
We had our own building issues,
A structure incomplete.
At dusk the sparrows left
And we were still stuck.