It took 14 hours for a single flock to fly over
Hunters would gather in-wait – with nets and a stool-tied-bird as bait
Some would burn the trees and collect the roasted bodies
Others would simply burn sulfur: thousands of breathless birds keeling over
Once in flocks a mile-wide and three-hundred long
Deforested and senselessly hunted until they were completely gone
Feed the poor, fatten the hogs, and stuff the beds
But don’t forget to stuff a few birds, gluing on their pretty heads
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Note: The Passenger Pigeon, although once numbered at 3-5 billion birds, was completely devastated by 1890. The last passenger pigeon, Martha, died at the Cincinnati Zoo in 1914, after 12 years in captivity.
P.S. – I’m also going to be publishing my poetry on this blog as well, which I am quite excited about. I hope my poems find a home in the hearts of those who appreciate poetry.
If you aren’t an avid poetry reader, I advise you to look up some poetry the next time you are about to kill time on facebook or TMZ.
A good place to start to get a feel for some of the more renowned poets is: Poem Hunter’s Top Poems List
The ancient Greek’s believed that the well-rounded man cultivated three aspects of himself: The Artist, the Warrior, and The Poet. So, to that end, I implore you to cultivate the poet in your heart.
[…] If you enjoyed this, read my first published poem on another beautiful, albeit extinct bird, The Passenger Pidgeon […]
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