The beak bent skyward,
No movement of the head,
The head that three minutes ago
Tried to fly through tempered glass
Who invented tempered glass anyway?
With its history of improvements
For safety and strength
For cars and skyscrapers
I’m sure not one human being
Who proudly adopted this glass,
Inserting it into towering structures,
And even this picture window
Never once considered
The Northern Flicker,
The bird whose beak bent skyward,
Whose head did not move now.
Nor all the casualties of collision,
Snared by the delusion of the day,
Striking this window in flight,
Into blue sky and oblivion.
—
A lifelong environmental advocate, birder and tent camping enthusiast, Annemarie Marek is currently completing her second collection of poems and essays that explore the hope and heartbreak of our human interaction with the natural world. Her first poetry collection, Calming the Wilderness, was named a Willa Literary Award finalist by Women Writing the West. Her poem Three Riffs, One Land was included in the New Mexico Poetry Anthology 2023.
