Ode to the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker
Of all the voices in this coniferous forest,
I most hear the silent one.
Same with the sightings in
densely populated treetops.
I see the one who is not here.
A clip of an old photograph is my companion,
taken in 1935, somewhere in Louisiana,
a male and female woodpecker
crossing paths outside the nest.
Every so often, I retrieve it from my backpack,
imagine its subjects into life.
A curious chickadee drops to a nearby branch
to see what I’m about.
I’m face to face with extinction, little bird.
You wouldn’t want a photo to be you.
John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident, recently published in New World Writing, North Dakota Quarterly and Tenth Muse. Latest books, “Between Two Fires,” “Covert,” and “Memory Outside The Head” are available through Amazon. Work upcoming in Haight-Ashbury Literary Journal, Birmingham Arts Journal, La Presa and Shot Glass Journal.
