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Maureen McGreavy Pigeon Tart

Poet Free verse

Numb and Number

three billion missing birds

                    the skies are blue

             with nothing to sing about





11/01/2019

Copyright © Maureen McGreavy Pigeon Tart | Year Posted 2019

absencebirddepressionfree verse

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November 13, 2019 at 5:41 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 Pigeon Tart

November 13, 2019 at 6:51 AM

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

November 8, 2019 at 2:17 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 Pigeon Tart

November 9, 2019 at 1:49 PM

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

November 4, 2019 at 5:31 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 Pigeon Tart

November 5, 2019 at 7:10 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

November 3, 2019 at 7:05 AM

This is very powerfully expressed.

Maureen McGreavy Pigeon Tart

November 3, 2019 at 7:37 AM

Thank you my friend, xomo

Caren Krutsinger

November 2, 2019 at 2:33 PM

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

Maureen McGreavy Pigeon Tart

November 3, 2019 at 7:35 AM

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

November 2, 2019 at 7:26 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 Pigeon Tart

November 2, 2019 at 8:02 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.

November 1, 2019 at 9:40 PM

Strong message superbly penned, Maureen.

Maureen McGreavy Pigeon Tart

November 2, 2019 at 8:04 AM

Thank you Line. x

November 1, 2019 at 9:28 PM

This is so sad but I can feel it!

Maureen McGreavy Pigeon Tart

November 2, 2019 at 8:05 AM

Thank you Kim, xomo

November 1, 2019 at 7:57 PM

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

Maureen McGreavy Pigeon Tart

November 2, 2019 at 8:06 AM

Thank you my friend. xomo!

Timothy Mcguire

November 1, 2019 at 7:49 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 Pigeon Tart

November 2, 2019 at 8:09 AM

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

November 1, 2019 at 5:29 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 Pigeon Tart

November 3, 2019 at 7:32 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. ;),

November 2, 2019 at 9:03 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 Pigeon Tart

November 2, 2019 at 8:13 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

November 1, 2019 at 4:54 PM

Maureen, Thank you for shining a light on the plight of the birds. I hope we can save some species, and spare ours. -Richard

November 2, 2019 at 10:05 PM

Save ourselves....yes.

Maureen McGreavy Pigeon Tart

November 2, 2019 at 8:15 AM

Thank you Richard. Saving them would be saving ourselves. They are crucial to our own survival. xomo

November 1, 2019 at 4:37 PM

A vacant sky--even if blue--nothing to sing about. I hear your message, Maureen.

Maureen McGreavy Pigeon Tart

November 2, 2019 at 8:15 AM

Thank you Vijay, xomo

November 1, 2019 at 3:11 PM

I saw them meandering about down here

Maureen McGreavy Pigeon Tart

November 2, 2019 at 8:16 AM

Down where? I'll be right there...

November 1, 2019 at 12:38 PM

Love the title. : ) The poem seems sad even if the sun is out. : (

Maureen McGreavy Pigeon Tart

November 2, 2019 at 8:18 AM

Thank you Chris, the sky is as blue as I am without my birds. xomo

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