{"id":789,"date":"2017-09-20T21:45:38","date_gmt":"2017-09-20T21:45:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lostspeciesday.org\/?p=789"},"modified":"2018-11-07T13:59:41","modified_gmt":"2018-11-07T13:59:41","slug":"bestiary-by-joanna-macy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lostspeciesday.org\/?p=789","title":{"rendered":"Bestiary – by Joanna Macy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Bronx Zoo, Alexis Rockman, 2012-13<\/em><\/p>\n

Short-tailed albatross<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Whooping crane<\/p>\n

Gray wolf<\/p>\n

Woodland caribou<\/p>\n

Hawksbill sea turtle<\/p>\n

Rhinoceros<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The list of endangered species keeps growing longer every year.\u00a0 With\u00a0too many names to hold in our mind, how do we honor the passing of\u00a0life?\u00a0 What funerals or farewells are appropriate?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Reed warbler<\/p>\n

Swallowtail butterfly<\/p>\n

Bighorn sheep<\/p>\n

Indian python<\/p>\n

Howler monkey<\/p>\n

Sperm whale<\/p>\n

Blue whale<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dive me deep, brother whale, in this time we have left. Deep in our\u00a0mother ocean where I once swam, gilled and finned. The salt from those\u00a0early seas still runs in my tears. Tears aren\u2019t enough anymore. Give\u00a0me a song, a song for a sadness too vast for my heart, for a rage too\u00a0wild for my throat.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Giant sable antelope<\/p>\n

Wyoming toad<\/p>\n

Grizzly bear<\/p>\n

Brown bear<\/p>\n

Bactrian camel<\/p>\n

Nile crocodile<\/p>\n

Chinese alligator<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ooze me, alligator, in the mud whence I came. Belly me slow in the\u00a0rich primordial soup, cradle of our molecules. Let me wallow again,\u00a0before we drain your swamp and pave it over.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Gray bat<\/p>\n

Ocelot<\/p>\n

Pocket mouse<\/p>\n

Sockeye salmon<\/p>\n

Tasmanian kangaroo<\/p>\n

Hawaiian goose<\/p>\n

Audouin\u2019s seagull<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Quick, lift off. Sweep me high over the coast and out, farther out.\u00a0 Don\u2019t land here. Oilspills coat the beach, rocks, sea. I cannot spread\u00a0my wings glued with tar.\u00a0 Fly me from what we have done, fly me far.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Golden parakeet<\/p>\n

West African ostrich<\/p>\n

Florida panther<\/p>\n

Galapagos penguin<\/p>\n

Imperial pheasant<\/p>\n

Snow leopard<\/p>\n

Mexican prairie dog<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Hide me in a hedgerow, badger. Can\u2019t you find one? Dig me a tunnel\u00a0through leaf-mold and roots, under the trees that once defined our\u00a0fields. My heart is bulldozed and plowed over.\u00a0 Burrow me a labyrinth\u00a0deeper than longing.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Thick-billed parrot<\/p>\n

San Francisco garter snake<\/p>\n

Desert bandicoot<\/p>\n

Molokai thrush<\/p>\n

California condor<\/p>\n

Lotus blue butterfly<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Crawl me out of here, caterpillar. Spin me a cocoon. Wind me to sleep\u00a0in a shroud of silk, where in patience my bones will dissolve. I\u2019ll\u00a0wait as long as all creation if only it will come again \u2014 and I take\u00a0wing.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Atlantic ridley turtle<\/p>\n

Coho salmon<\/p>\n

Helmeted hornbill<\/p>\n

Marine otter<\/p>\n

Humpback whale<\/p>\n

Steller sea-lion<\/p>\n

Monk seal<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Swim me out beyond the ice floes, mama. Where are you? Boots squeeze\u00a0my ribs, clubs drum my fur, the white world goes black with the taste\u00a0of my blood.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Gibbon<\/p>\n

Sand gazelle<\/p>\n

Swamp deer<\/p>\n

Musk deer<\/p>\n

Cheetah<\/p>\n

Chinchilla<\/p>\n

Asian elephant<\/p>\n

African elephant<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sway me slowly through the jungle. There still must be jungle\u00a0somewhere, my heart drips with green secrets. Hose me down by the\u00a0waterhole; there is buckshot in my hide. Tell me old stories while you\u00a0can remember.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Desert tortoise<\/p>\n

Crested ibis<\/p>\n

Hook-billed kite<\/p>\n

Mountain zebra<\/p>\n

Mexican bobcat<\/p>\n

Andrew\u2019s frigatebird<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In the time when his world, like ours, was ending, Noah had a list of\u00a0the animals, too. We picture him standing by the gangplank, calling\u00a0their names, checking them off on his scroll. Now we also are checking\u00a0them off.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ivory-billed woodpecker<\/p>\n

Indus river dolphin<\/p>\n

West Indian manatee<\/p>\n

Wood stork<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We reenact Noah\u2019s ancient drama, but in reverse, like a film running\u00a0backwards, the animals exiting.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ferret<\/p>\n

Gorilla<\/p>\n

Jaguar<\/p>\n

Wolf<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Your tracks are growing fainter. Wait. Wait. This is a hard time.\u00a0 Don\u2019t leave us alone in a world we have wrecked.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bronx Zoo, Alexis Rockman, 2012-13 Short-tailed albatross Whooping crane Gray wolf Woodland caribou Hawksbill sea turtle Rhinoceros   The list of endangered species keeps growing longer every year.\u00a0 With\u00a0too many names to hold in our mind, how do we honor the passing of\u00a0life?\u00a0 What funerals or farewells are appropriate?   Reed warbler Swallowtail butterfly Bighorn […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[14,7,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-789","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-14","category-artist-projects","category-grieving","without-featured-image"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7RX4u-cJ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lostspeciesday.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lostspeciesday.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lostspeciesday.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lostspeciesday.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lostspeciesday.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=789"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.lostspeciesday.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":794,"href":"https:\/\/www.lostspeciesday.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789\/revisions\/794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lostspeciesday.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lostspeciesday.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lostspeciesday.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}