A Friend of Sky

The plight of the Spix's Macaw has always been a fascinating and quite relatable subject to me--in 2000 the very last wild specimen, a male, disappeared in the wilds of Brazil. On a human scale, how would it feel to be the last of your kind?

 

1999. The wind is not a gentle creature It shrieks and howls like a wounded leviathan It hisses and aggresses; it goads me But it is my only companion in these hopeless days When the smiling sun has been blotted out by the listless gloom of solitude Though its austerity I do indeed feel, Wind also comforts me Wrapping me in its soft, frictionless tendrils Coiling; caressing But the despair does not fade For does it ever? I am alone.