Song for Species
i am the Kaui-o-o bird
singing heartily from treetops
desperately trying to lure a mate
but there are none
i am the only one left
and my heart is broken
i am a school of angel fish
pecking day by day at the coral
looking for signs of life
but there are none
i swim in a sea of skeletons
that was once my coral home
i am a small tired nightingale
i migrate great distances across Africa
into the green plains of Europe
in search of spring shrubbery for food
all i see are rows of wheat and corn
and nowhere suitable to lay my nest
i am turtle
my ancestors have swam these seas
for millions of years
but now i lay here on the ocean
tangled in a web of fishing nets
unable to move through water
i am sequoia
my parents lived for three thousand years
but i am young,
i send roots deeper into soil in search of water
but there is none
my bark thin, unable to withstand the fires
i am toad
i live in the moist quagmire of rainforest
now i go long distances between pools
streams i once walked are dry
the canopy above once an immense green
dries before my eyes
i am whale, blue, fin back, pilot
i’m known for traveling great distances
now i roam the ocean for krill
and swim farther and farther
in strange waters north and south
moving with a restless hunger
i am gray whale
washed up on the beaches of california
i am disoriented and lost
confused by sonar, shipping
unable now to navigate the song lines
encoded into my dna
i am raven
perched high above sprawling towns
seeing people who have lost their way
i soar into the heavens
and pray the rains will come
cleansing hearts and bring new vision
and i am human
lamenting the species long gone
yet still turning to the wonders still here
so much beauty and yet i grieve
and cherish not to forget
that we protect what we love
