The Last Passenger Pigeon (d. September 1, 1914, Cincinnati Zoo) (2024)
Amy Miller
Eyewitnesses reported that skies darkened when flocks flew overhead on sunny
days.
Martha, once a speck
in the abundance of her kind
became just one, last
in the alone
of her cage, dead
on a late-summer afternoon.
We loved a long while in a gentle
deep, our silence
kindling comfort. Your pulse
trembled my heart, my cheek
soaked up your sun
until
you receded into ashen sleep.
When I die, our final fastening
dispersed,
perhaps the skies
will lighten then.