On Hearing the Latest Stats of North American Birds

I recently heard scientists say the carbon in the atmosphere did not decrease one wit at the start of this pandemic when almost the whole world experienced weeks in lockdown. Though smog disappeared and mountains reappeared there was no measurable difference. I don't think I was alone in hoping for even the briefest of dips.

On Hearing the Latest Stats of North American Birds

Many years ago my friend

dreamt of silent skies and flyways,

                     and woke up sobbing.

Her Rachel Carson prescience

now plays out in real time.

This morning a robin scratching

for breakfast scatters lawn detritus

by himself.        A lone diner

                     in an empty eatery.

City lakes no longer beckon blue

herons and great egrets with waters

turned tanin.          The absence

                        of the cranes an ache.

The winds of the plains once carried

           the lilt of meadowlarks.

        Lately, the breezes sing solo.

But, maybe, in this time of lockdown

when the earth breathes

without inhaling human hubris,

and exposes mountains hidden

by smog, the scoldings of red-winged

blackbirds will assault my senses again.

Marilyn Aschoff Mellor