NVN Monday: DIE-OFF

by Pepper Trail

Ocean Heat Wiped Out Half These Seabirds Around Alaska: About four million common murres were killed by a domino effect of ecosystem changes, and the population is showing no signs of recovery, according to new research... [The researchers] believe it is the largest documented die-off of a single species of wild birds or mammals. —The New York Times, December 12, 2024. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service photos above: A murre colony in the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge, seen before and after the 2015-16 marine heat wave.

*

The Arctic sea-cliffs are not silent
The birds, the murres, still throng the ledges
Black and white, sharp-eyed, clamorous
Even as half their millions are starved and dead
 
The birds, the murres, still throng the ledges
As we would still fill the New York streets
Even if half our millions were dead, crushed
Beneath weight of heat, a fatality never imagined
 
We would still fill the New York streets
Though senseless with grief, with loneliness
After a heat, a fatality never before imagined
A disaster beyond our comprehension
 
Though senseless with loneliness
The birds still fly, feed, tend their young
Despite a disaster beyond comprehension
Their world changed beyond recognition
 
Here, we would still work, tend our children
There would be no choice, never any choice
But in a world changed beyond recognition
A warning that could no longer be ignored
 
We would have no choice, at last no choice
If the dying took millions from a great city
The warning could then no longer be ignored
But this happened far away, a distant warming sea
 
This dying took millions of only birds
Somewhere far away, a distant warming sea
Just another warning to be ignored
The Arctic cliffs, after all, have not yet fallen silent

*

Pepper Trail is a poet and naturalist based in Ashland, Oregon. His poetry has appeared in Rattle, Atlanta Review, Spillway, Kyoto Journal, Cascadia Review, and other publications, and has been nominated for Pushcart and Best of the Net awards. His collection Cascade-Siskiyou was a finalist for the 2016 Oregon Book Award in Poetry.