Eagle’s Landing
The icon of American freedom Once soared the skies In numbers too big to count But that is all changed now Much of their land has been taken Destroyed By those claiming ‘progress’ But for the eagle It just means homelessness Their food is now scarce Poisoned by pesticides Or killed by development Again because of ‘progress’ How can they survive Against the human machine Of self preservation That propels us to build a world of steel Where little else has value How can we treat our national symbol With such disdain We have lost our connection To Mother Earth For the eagle this means a battle Of life and death Against an unseen enemy That hides its true intentions Who will win in a war of no winners If we lose the eagle We lose ourselves as well We just don’t see How our fates are intertwined Every little eaglet Brings hope for the future They don’t know how bleak we have made it Only time will tell If we all will still have a home on Mother Earth
Annie and the legacy of plastic
She greeted the morning with a yawn Wings stretched out to catch the wind As she soared through the air Her eyes glazed the land for food Annie the Anhinga was a bird Whose story is tragically common She had a mate She had a home She had freedom They had their courtship, made their nest Hoping like all parents The best for their chicks Life went on daily as planned The pair tended to their chicks Best they could In a hostile world They did not create She went out one morning to find food But instead found plastic She returned to the nest But had no food The hungry chicks pecked at her beak Begging for her to feed them They tried to bite the plastic hanging from her beak. We tried in vain to capture and save her For two long days We watched her struggle To scrap away the danger She knew laid ahead Her wings took her far away And out of our reach We never saw her again But her story does not end there Her mate could not tend to all three chicks And made the unbearable choice of letting the youngest go A slow end came for the little Anhinga Death was a welcome relief to her pain Her siblings were fed and survived This is the legacy of plastic We have left for others Her life and death serve as a cautionary tale and we need to pay attention.
Bio: Lifelong preservationist, environmentalist and animal advocate. Published writer, blogger and poet. I write poetry for fun and investigative articles to educate and motivate people into action. My travels and passion to make the world a better place inspires my writing. I’m an avid photographer and hiker who calls the east coast home with my rescue kitties.
Fevers of the Mind 