… of the dusky seaside sparrow**

its weight was light as light / its flight the sound of flight
now a not-there  / a when-sought  /  a no-longer-found
it doesn’t sing / it doesn’t shiver / it doesn’t flit or peck
doesn’t listen / look / pinch seed / make marsh-grass nod

this un-become owed nothing /
this thoughtless careless timeless did not plan /
knew nothing of church or science /
of government / medicine / anthropocene /

this not-chained / this charm
whose egg was all-that-is-needed-surrounds /
this mystery of now / who did not know forever /
who could not dream a time when what it needed could not be found

this not think / last-bird /
this not think / not-have-enough /
his not think / stop-beginning /
this not think/ no-again /

this bird
now darkly perched / is not
waiting
already
gone

poem Jo Mariner 

**The Dusky seaside sparrow, now extinct, was a non-migratory Seaside sparrow subspecies. Its distinct song and dark coloration was unique among this species (A. maritimus). In 1873, it was first listed as species. In 1973, it was categorized as subspecies. This subspecies was officially declared extinct in December 1990.Habitat destruction followed by pesticides and pollution led to its extinction. Their numbers sharply dropped when their nesting grounds were scourged as the authorities wanted to clear the mosquito population around the Kennedy Space Center. The program flooded the Merritt Island marshes. There was hardly any attempt to get rid of all the harmful effects on wildlife triggered by the flooding. Later, the marshes near the river were drained in order to make a higand  https://www.extinctanimals.org/dusky-seaside-sparrow.htm