POETRY
SPRING 2022Sound Fossil
by H. E. FISHER
Kauaʻi ʻŌʻō birdsong transcribed by ANDY PEASE
Kauaʻi ʻŌʻō bird declared extinct.
One of the last recorded a half century ago:
a machined song. I transcribe the loss,
notes like black bones, like birds on wire, fossilized
tones and rests, timed-out signatures, measured.
Scientists call birds ancestral radiations of dinosaurs,
nested theropods, Earth’s volant beings. Archived
after ~100 million years of evolution: dark gray
feathers, white spotted necks, paired yellow tufts
fanning near their tails, surviving meteor or comet,
distant climates—but not humans.
Did the last Kauaʻi ʻŌʻō rot, become forest?
Every bird knows the limit of the sky.
H. E. Fisher
H. E. Fisher’s poetry, prose poems, and essays appear or are forthcoming in Longleaf Review, Whale Road Review, Miracle Monocle, Anti-Heroin Chic, Indianapolis Review, and Canary, among other publications. Her lyrical essay, “Ocean: An Autobiography” (The Hopper), and prose poem, “Elegy for Trees” (Feral), were nominated for Best of the Net. H. E. is the editor of (Re) An Ideas Journal. Her first collection, Sterile Field (Free Lines Press), and chapbook, Jane Almost Always Smiles (Moonstone Press), are forthcoming in 2022/23.