O'o

Yesterday I listened
to the last recorded sounds
of a now-extinct bird
   first calling a mate
      then after a storm took her away
his lone call
and the space where her answer should have been
was so heavy
   O please, O please
   let me find her
   let me hear her voice
silence seemed to say
I've never perceived so much
from an empty moment
and I felt so much regret
for being a human
on this sad earth
that just never saw us coming

it's not so hard to smile

at a stranger

or a friend

to be infected briefly by joy

but they go on

and I feel a heavy

stillness

that weighs somber

and thick in silence

or cold darkness