T'was in the night Da Vinci dreams
Man can fly or so it seems
Columbus, Cabot off our shore
Our great auk is seen no more

Time goes by and brothers Wright
The silver dart and man's first flight
Passenger pigeons - once filled the skies
No mate is found - old Martha dies

Lucky Lindbergh ruled the day
When o'er the ocean the target lay
Eskimo curlew - their time is past
Not a one - the very last

Amelia Earhart without a crew
Into history books she flew
Piping plover seldom seen
On the beaches where it's been

Oh the glory - of man's first flight
To the skies we bring our fight
Man cannot be truly sane
Spitfire, stuka, zero plane

Broke these earthly bonds Magee
Touched his face - my God I see
From the lake and from the fen
Canvas back and great mud hen

Howard Hughes promotes more flights
Come fly with us and see the sights
Endangered lists expand and grow
we declare - we just don't know

Rachel Carson - silent spring
Saw what chemicals would bring
Herbicide - to make a perfect lawn
Robins and the earth worms gone

Where the endless forest stand
Clearcut reigns across the land
Ivory bill - they think are done
Maybe not - there could be one

David Suzuki you might recall
Saw the writing on the wall
Burrowing owls on the ground
Sad to say that none are found

Off to the stars the rockets take
One small step for mankind's sake
But all the while insidious things
To feathered friends this same man brings

In the eve - upon the hill
Silence now - no whip-poor-will
Night hawk screeching by the light
None are there - a lonesome sight

Warblers, swallows seldom seen
In all the places they have been
So few birds are in the trees
Shorebirds swim in oily seas

Birders yearly look and call
And every year the numbers fall
What the future - what the cost
Blind as Milton - our paradise lost

When I was but a tiny lad
The world I knew weren't quite so bad
Beneath the stars and bright full moon
Did you ever hear the wondrous loon?

All the places that we'll roam
We forgot - there is no place like home
To abysmal depths aliferous things
As man flies on - with Icarus wings

It's good to laugh. it's good to cry
It's good to live, it's good to die
A tear rolls down this old man's cheek
Not in the sky the birds I seek   Submitted By: NULL