For the memory of a lost song

 

For David Attenborough

 

We should listen hard

For the last song

Of a species

Of a bird

Nearly nightingale

Of a mammal

Nearly whale

We should listen hard

For we do not want their silence

The loneliness that would entail

Silent woodland would be an eerie world

An expression of a love we could not hold

A love so old it held us in its arms

When we were another animal

Alone, vulnerable and cold

Without a song

To keep it’s territory

Attract a mate

Just like our fellows

Who we presume to own

Push towards a threshold

That only holds the silence

Alone and so cold