She greeted the morning with a yawn
Wings stretched out to catch the wind
As she soared through the air
Her eyes glazed the land for food
Annie the Anhinga was a bird
Whose story is tragically common
She had a mate
She had a home
She had freedom
They had their courtship, made their nest
Hoping like all parents
The best for their chicks
Life went on daily as planned
The pair tended to their chicks
Best they could in a hostile world
They did not create
She went out one morning to find food
But instead found plastic
She returned to the nest
But had no food
The hungry chicks pecked at her beak
Begging for her to feed them
They tried to bite the plastic
hanging from her beak.
We tried in vain to capture and save her
For two long days
We watched her struggle
To scrap away the danger
She knew laid ahead
Her wings took her far away
And out of our reach
We never saw her again
But her story does not end there
Her mate could not tend to all three chicks
And made the unbearable choice of letting the youngest go
A slow end came for the little Anhinga
Death was a welcome relief to her pain
Her siblings were fed and survived
This is the legacy of plastic
We have left for others
Her life and death serve as a cautionary tale
and we need to pay attention.
- Staci-lee Sherwood
Also published on Fevers of the mind on November 28, 2022