I.
Spotted owl. Loggers’ Public Enemy #1.
Polka dots, soft feathers, bright eyes
hunt small creatures of the night.
Symbol of nature. Environmental beacon.
Barred owl hunted by government
to protect her freckled cousin.
Why dots over dashes? Nature’s SOS.
Five hundred thousand targeted to
let the spotted owl spread her wings and
fly free in old growth canopies.
II.
At 100 years we are teenagers who’ve seen it all.
We reach for the sun, riot and rejoice.
Shafted light tickles frogs and fungi.
Air saturated with the elixir of life.
Our needles carpet the forest floor,
streams play tag with rocks.
We are home to so many: the fish, the fowl,
the beetle, the deer, the rabbit, the fern.
We are not for your taking
but men take and take and take
until we have nothing more to give.
III.
“We like our spotted owls fried,”
the joke goes. Trucks rust, Karen’s
Café closes. Weeds and bored kids
find life in empty lots. Food pantries
pop up. Ghost towns dot rural counties.
Suits in D.C. we never see decide
our collective fate, lock the forest to
save the spotted owl. Trees are for cutting,
for jobs, for homes. Renewable resource.
What’s the big deal?
—
Molly Mayhead is Professor Emeritus of Communication Studies at Western Oregon University. She holds a Ph.D. in Speech Communication from Penn State University. She taught a variety of communication studies courses for 31 years before retiring in 2019. She lives with her husband on a five-acre tree farm in the foothills of the Oregon Coastal Range.
