ENDLING
~ by Maria Popova
Unspooling from a reel
in the sound archive
of the British Library
is the syncopating chirp of
the last Moho braccatus —
a small Hawaiian bird
now extinct.
After centuries of humans
silenced the species
with civilization,
after a hurricane
killed the last female
in 1982,
he alone was left
to sing the final song
of his kind —
a mating call for
a world void of mate.
In ten billion years,
the Sun will burn out.
In a hundred billion,
the galaxies will drift apart
and take away the light,
leaving the night sky
black as the inside
of a skull.
In time,
all the energy
of the cosmos
will dissipate
until none is left
to succor life
as the universe goes on expanding
into eternity.
Somewhere along the way,
there will have been a creature
to think the last thought
and feel the last feeling
and sing the last song
of life.
And it will have been beautiful,
this brief movement of being
in the silent symphony
of forever,
and it will have been merciful
that only hindsight
ever knows
each last.
💙⭐️💙⭐️💙
To Listen to Author Read her poem:
💙⭐️💙⭐️💙
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