People, Motherfucker, People!
The first ideology is restraint
For you, but really for my sake
I will keep my big mouth shut
The second is moderation
I haven’t yet figured out how
to make you—you, not me—
less extreme, intense, or violent
Neither restraint nor moderation
applies to birds—
more and more I notice them
and although I own a pair
of binoculars I haven’t looked
to know the birds any better—
haven’t learned their names,
calls, or chirrups but I do notice
the color of their throats
and this counts for something
Where I live and work only
one species has survived
the latest disaster
Where have all the starlings gone?
Does the flycatcher still trill?
Who will remember the honeycreeper?
Let me ask, does the truth matter?
Wisdom teaches me enough
to believe that I am good and just
or at least to say a few words
about their disappearance
from the world, to accept
with or without belief
that someone or something
rewards virtue and punishes evil
Yet even the lowly sparrows
who soar over every wrong thing
shit on the heads of the innocent
And the numbers—the numbers
I see every morning—not birds
but people! people!—
are unfathomable, and more
than numbers You know—
I know you know—there’s no right
question or adequate answer
or a way for this to end
better than it began
***
Author photograph courtesy of Hayan Charara
