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Who knew that words were in flight,
that there are linguists like birders
counting their disappearing numbers,

that malagrug and brannigan and brabble
would vanish like the passenger pigeon,
the Lyall’s wren, the Dodo, the Great Auk?

Or more disturbingly like the friends
that once populated my neck of the woods—
the Nancys, the Dianes, the Lucilles,

the feckless Fanny, the doxy Dolly...
Why was my heart always a flutter-burst
for the illecebrous Ann?

Call me a gudgeon. I never believed
that names that once delighted my tongue
would go the way of snow broth—

vanishing like the Bonin grosbeak,
the Mauke starling, the Guadaulupe caracara,
like the vouropatra, the aepyornis,

the mulleronis. My youth is like Madagascar,
an island with more and more losses.
No extinction of a species could haunt me more

than at night when I drift off into wittendream,
thinking of you, Ann. It’s heartbreaking
to think we could have lived our lives together

like a couple of wrens sharing the same perch.
Recalling you, forty years later, I can conjure
up your voice as I drift off to sleep

as clearly as I can the song of the disappearing
nightingale or the rose-breasted grosbeak,
your memory a wondrous twitter-light.

Bob, I find this a brilliant poem.
So many odd words that I don't know but take on trust
and used as a metaphor for bird species lost.
I am flabbergasted and am lost in the details,
not so worried about these strange words dying out
but but to lose those species is a shock.

Yes, Bob, a treasure trove of words. I’ll have to look up some of them and then the long ago love lost too.

Thanks, Billy

Thx, Frank... very much appreciated. For some reason I missed your comment. Good luck on your nom!

And now this poem has a Pushkin nomination.
Well done Bob.
In this delightful example of modern poetry
the poet takes the pleasure both found
in writing poetry to educate the reader
and display his 2nd love, that of nature
and in particular his great love of feathered friends.

Wow, congratulations, Bob, well-deserved. Wouldn't doubt that it will win.

Wow, thank you. I appreciate your congrats…

I remember this. Can you clarify Pushcart nom? Or is it Pushkin?

Pushcart. It was renamed “Madagascar”, and nominated by Autumn Sky Poetry Daily”. You should send them something.

Thanks and big congrats. I bought the 2022 Pushcart anthology. I was disappointed most of it was short stories. It's quite an honor to be nominated.