The Archive of Birds

An aviary of forms

at our fingertips

 

starlings aflight

in pixel murmurations

 

hummingbirds sipping

from morning glories

 

hovering on screens

in our underground homes

 

relics of a lost world

caught in silicon amber

 

embedded in language

lagging reality

 

the phrases we parrot

as we lark around

 

eagle-eyed, raven-haired

crowing our triumphs

 

as corporate vultures hawk

their latest gadgets

 

too chicken to swallow

their guilt, our guilt

 

ducking responsibility

for cardinal sins

 

feathered extinctions

nested in databases

 

flapping heavily aloft

in a digital swan song.

Mary Soon Lee was born and raised in London, but has lived in Pittsburgh for thirty years. She is a Grand Master of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association and a three-time winner of both the AnLab Readers’ Award and the Rhysling Award. Her latest book is How to Navigate Our Universe, containing how-to astronomy poems. Website: marysoonlee.com.

 

Photo by Alexander Sinn on Unsplash