Climate Change Contest: Gold
I.
I wish I hadn’t been born in the Age of Extinction,
I really don’t think my origami heart was made for this,
This list of things that disappeared into the folds long before I was 3, 4, 5,
How many last ones am I throwing in the trash?
How many last ones am I scraping on my tongue?
Where are the last papyrus makers in Egypt?
Where are the last speakers of my tongue?
II.
You didn’t know the spirits talk to me,
But they do. You don’t know that there is a ghost following me,
But there is. You ask me to define immigrant for a prompt in our English class
& I say someone who doesn’t need an English class. You ask me
To define broken in our English class & I say my butchered mother tongue.
Then we go read an article about a species we will never see,
A type of bluebird that I can’t remember the Latin name of,
I.
I wish I hadn’t been born in the Age of Extinction,
I really don’t think my origami heart was made for this,
This list of things that disappeared into the folds long before I was 3, 4, 5,
How many last ones am I throwing in the trash?
How many last ones am I scraping on my tongue?
Where are the last papyrus makers in Egypt?
Where are the last speakers of my tongue?
II.
You didn’t know the spirits talk to me,
But they do. You don’t know that there is a ghost following me,
But there is. You ask me to define immigrant for a prompt in our English class
& I say someone who doesn’t need an English class. You ask me
To define broken in our English class & I say my butchered mother tongue.
Then we go read an article about a species we will never see,
A type of bluebird that I can’t remember the Latin name of,
- Read more about Bluebird song
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- Sprout