Nearly Every Songbird on Earth Is Eating Plastic
nearly every rip is a crisp pact,nearly every step is a disabled piss,a slip, a psst, is past, is pastthe squawking headline, belowthe photo of a juvenile herring gullclasping in its beak, sailing in its scat,ridding from its ass, the remainsof a Yoplait parfait. In 1960, 5%of sea-faring avians ate plastic.In 1960, fewer sporks, fewer caps,fewer cigarette tips. By 1980,the number had jumped to 80%,a stirrer, straw, & Starbucks lidexplosion. Global productiondoubles by the decade, global lipspart, global rods cast, globaldisablers dig, global dips subtract.By 2028, more plastic swirlingin that gargantuan garbage gyre,that loosely collected rubbishspectacle than all the plasticfactory-spat since plastic-ing began.When auklets stab at shrink wrap,when pigeon guillemots gulpDoritos bags, there's no roomin a gut for a mollusk, a morselof crab. Punches holesin their organs. Strips parts. Scrapsscripts. When birds chew Blowpopwrappers, guzzle Glad bags,courtship desists. When one birdeats 200 pieces. When one bird,piling and bridling, is trapped.When one bird's trackdeparts. "If you add plasticto a gut, it will make a difference,"said the gadfly petrel never. Subtracthow many there were, take two awayfrom three. Take away: a voicevamoosing, an attic collapsing,a number deeply dinged, teeteringon cast away, on doused, on dropping to nil.
Feature Date
- November 16, 2019
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Copyright © 2018 by Martha Silano
All rights reserved.
Reproduced by Poetry Daily with permission.
Langdon Cook
Martha Silano is the author of five books of poetry, including Gravity Assist (Saturnalia Books), What the Truth Tastes Like (Two Sylvias Press), Reckless Lovely (Saturnalia Books), and The Little Office of the Immaculate Conception, winner of the 2010 Saturnalia Books Poetry Prize. She also co-authored The Daily Poet: Day-By-Day Prompts For Your Writing Practice (Two Sylvias Press). Martha’s poems have appeared in Paris Review, Poetry, American Poetry Review, New England Review, and North American Review, among others. Awards include the James Hearst Poetry Prize and the Robert and Adele Schiff Award in Poetry. Her work appears in numerous anthologies, including The Best American Poetry series, and she has been awarded writing fellowships from the Millay Colony for the Arts, the University of Arizona Poetry Center, and Yaddo, among others. Martha teaches at Bellevue College in Bellevue, WA. Learn more about Martha and her work at marthasilano.net.
Issue 45
Notre Dame, Illinois
The University of Notre Dame
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Orlando Menes
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Nazli Koca
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Valerie Sayers
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