The Dodo’s Legacy

How know you that the dodo lived
That bird now gone from earth
That strutted fields and foreign realms
And of Mauritian birth

The bird that now is so extinct
It will not tweet anew
That walked so free in time gone by
Now disappeared from view

And yet that lesson still not learnt
As animals demise
From weaponry of human greed
Consumed before our eyes

So save this ball on that we spin
Through space and galaxies
Safeguarding all endangered lives
Protect all rare species

For let our children not grow old
To only recollect
From books the pictures of wildlife
They’ll otherwise forget

And steadfastly let creeds be drawn
Save beasts to roam so free
To walk the world for we must learn
The Dodo’s legacy

Dodo reconstruction (Raphus cucullatus) reflecting new research at Oxford University Museum of Natural History (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

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The Barn Owl

Hush see, the barn owl out tonight
Beneath the azure sky
Below the crescent moonlit gaze
A-soaring way up high

It searches out its nightime prey
It flies with skill and grace
The barn owl o’er the field and fen
Alight with heart shape face

With talons poised from feathered legs
It quarters wood-side track
With screech to shatter many ears
Wing wavering for attack

And yet across the darkened land
In silent eerie flight
The barn owl soars so effortlessly
A wise, majestic sight