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Numb and Number

three billion missing birds the skies are blue with nothing to sing about 11/01/2019

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P.S. Awtry

Date: 11/13/2019 5:41:00 AM

“the skies are blue”—had never noticed the ambiguity there before. Nor had I noticed numb/number before... always in awe. Powerful write Maureen! This is a Fave for me. (Captcha is EPA)

Maureen Mcgreavy
Date: 11/13/2019 6:51:00 AM

Thank you so much PS, my muse surprises me sometimes, this one did for sure. Fitting captcha! ;), Hugs! xomo

Gershon Wolf

Date: 11/8/2019 2:17:00 PM

This is so well conceived! The title is just perfect: Love the wordplay... And the skies are truly missing their melody! ~ gw

Maureen Mcgreavy
Date: 11/9/2019 1:49:00 PM

Thank you my friend. I am devestaded by what I'm not witnessing ;), Hugs & warm thoughts, xomo

Indiana Shaw

Date: 11/4/2019 5:31:00 PM

I'm lucky to be on the flight path of crows who gather twice a day in the same trees for their morning and before sunset repartee where the sky literary turn black with their presence, if ever the sky stayed blue I would be blue too . . . : (

Maureen Mcgreavy
Date: 11/5/2019 7:10:00 AM

Oh what raucous magnificence! I would feel blessed! They once roosted for the night in the trees around my house, it was glorious! It was winter, the naked trees draped in black feathered leaves. And their cooing, it was someth'n else. ;), xomo!

Richard Lamoureux

Date: 11/3/2019 7:05:00 AM

This is very powerfully expressed.

Maureen Mcgreavy
Date: 11/3/2019 7:37:00 AM

Thank you my friend, xomo

Caren Krutsinger

Date: 11/2/2019 2:33:00 PM

They are the ones that are never coming back, right? We need more poems about this.

Maureen Mcgreavy
Date: 11/3/2019 7:35:00 AM

Not unless there's some consensus and action, no they are never coming back. Thank you Caren. Hugs xomo

Silent One

Date: 11/2/2019 7:26:00 AM

well, they have all gone south for the winter.... they will be back soon and the darkness will also end...... love your work MOMO

Maureen Mcgreavy
Date: 11/2/2019 8:02:00 AM

Thank you my friend. Sadly no, I should be seeing them on their migration. That number is the amount of bird decline in North America since 1970.

Line Gauthier

Date: 11/1/2019 9:40:00 PM

Strong message superbly penned, Maureen.

Maureen Mcgreavy
Date: 11/2/2019 8:04:00 AM

Thank you Line. x

Kim Rodrigues

Date: 11/1/2019 9:28:00 PM

This is so sad but I can feel it!

Maureen Mcgreavy
Date: 11/2/2019 8:05:00 AM

Thank you Kim, xomo

Rico Leffanta

Date: 11/1/2019 7:57:00 PM

APPLAUSE! APPLAUSE! Well done, indeed! Aloha! Rico

Maureen Mcgreavy
Date: 11/2/2019 8:06:00 AM

Thank you my friend. xomo!

Timothy Mcguire

Date: 11/1/2019 7:49:00 PM

Wonderful poem. Ive read that domestic cats kill about I million birds a year. Along with all the other hazards our feathered friends face makes this poem so spot on

Maureen Mcgreavy
Date: 11/2/2019 8:09:00 AM

Thank you Tim. Yup, and that number is North America alone, in my lifetime. xomo

Jeff Connelly

Date: 11/1/2019 5:29:00 PM

Wow Maureen this has it all!!! The title word play excellent. The emptiness of a blue sky holds no happiness even if sunny for there are no birds. And the defining last line holds the weight of more sadness in its silence. Better for me to use the word brilliant instead of beautiful.

Maureen Mcgreavy
Date: 11/3/2019 7:32:00 AM

Yes, there should be 3 billion more birds not even counting the passenger pigeons. You know I'm a fancier, that is a sadness for me too, and the dodo, that was a pigeon too. I would have loved a 3' pet pigeon. ;),

Jeff Connelly
Date: 11/2/2019 9:03:00 PM

Though not of the sky, I remind you of your wonderful Dodo poem Maureen. But I know what you mean. When younger, this time of the year, I would lay on my back in a neighboring corn field, and watch grackles and starlings and geese and swans in mass quantity fly south; and it would last for hours upon hours, even as I stood up and walked and watched on my way home. Yet sad to say I never saw the same thing with Passenger Pigeons :(

Maureen Mcgreavy
Date: 11/2/2019 8:13:00 AM

I am so blue, I mean my depression is way better but this lack of birds, it's damn near paralyzing. Thank you my friend, xomo