I never wanted a three-gram life,
never wanted to fade into the abyss
like Echo the cursed nymph.
Something poisonous is approaching,
and it is the season of sawdust,
mighty canopy trees are disappearing
into thin air sour with phosphate.
Listen: yellow crazy ants are crawling
while giant centipedes are creeping in dust.
I want to hide in the echo of the silence,
but not die in the dark of the rainforest.
I must crack open my three-centimetre wings,
but not die in the dark of the rainforest.
I want to hide in the echo of the silence
while giant centipedes are creeping in dust.
Listen: yellow crazy ants are crawling
into thin air sour with phosphate.
Mighty canopy trees are disappearing,
and it is the season of sawdust,
something poisonous is approaching.
Like Echo the cursed nymph,
I never wanted to fade into the abyss,
never wanted a three-gram life.
Christmas Island Pipistrelle (Pipistrellus murrayi)
In Greek mythology, Echo was a mountain nymph known for her beautiful voice until the goddess Hera cursed her, only to repeat the last words spoken by others. This is where the word echo comes from, and that is why I chose to write my poem in the form of a palindrome, mimicking the biological wonder of bats’ echolocation.
However, for Australia's Christmas Island pipistrelle, which was a species of vesper bat, navigation through the echoes of the world ended forever in 2009, another year in the Catastrocene, our dark century of catastrophes. This three-gram bat became extinct due to invasive predators and pests such as wolf snakes, giant centipedes, and yellow crazy ants, along with habitat loss caused by the annihilation of old rainforests for phosphate mining. Furthermore, despite early warnings from scientists, the government could not put an emergency captive breeding programme into action on time. When a rescue team arrived on the island, it was far too late; only a single bat was left.
Soon that last bat faded into the echo of extinction, too. And like so many species in the twenty-first century, the three-centimetre wings of the Christmas Island pipistrelle were lost from the face of the Earth forever.
Thanks for reading.
Özge Lena
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