by William Aarnes
Bird populations are declining — a staggering loss of 3 billion breeding adults, or nearly 30 percent of the population, in just a half century. —The Washington Post, January 17, 2024
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Say, in your hurry, you fail to notice that the flocks of doves and sparrows are gone from the sidewalks— until a ding on your phone distracts you from work with the news that all the doves and sparrows are gone from the city, no sign of where they went, the searches for stragglers having come to nothing, the mayor expressing his worry about what their sudden disappearance might portend, birdseed scattered everywhere to no avail, many quoted as saying the loss improves the city, many responding with angry lament, hours spent online finding the best videos of cooing and belatedly learning to distinguish different kinds of sparrows, then as time passes the ongoing debate about what to do becoming of less and less concern to you and everyone else in a hurry…
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William Aarnes lives in New York.
So good, so scathing, and perfectly balanced ... and a terrible reality while we are all so "in a hurry..." the natural world keeps on going or not ... the form of the poem is so fittingly spare, just like our trees, sidewalks and city lives would be without these creatures.