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Island Biodiversity


07.11.19 Posted in today's words by

Beth Bayley lives and writes in Singapore.

Island Biodiversity
By Beth Bayley

The roach I killed yesterday was as big as a golf ball,
which means it had been around for a long time,
only to die an ignoble death at the hands of a rolled-up Yoga Journal.

I first thought it was a hairball-tumbleweed
(those exist in the environment of our apartment)
and it was big, but nothing compared to the scorpion I saw
on a jungle run once—big as my hand and spider-black.

Everything’s here if you pay attention.
At dinner with friends the other night, someone said
if you look up at the trees at night, colugos
lie draped like beach towels in the moonlit branches.
And we all know the jungle is full of monkeys,
but if you head in there to escape the afternoon heat,
you’ll also encounter armed city workers
on a merry mission to cull them.

I looked out my window the other day at exactly the right time
to see a sea eagle soaring past,
silhouetted against the wild green soccer pitch across the street.
A Javan myna couple perched on the window ledge,
chattering away and probably talking shit about eagles,
and I watched them all, feeling very lucky, a creature among creatures.



2 Responses to “Island Biodiversity”

  1. I enjoyed your vivid poem.

  2. Dianne Deloren says:

    I enjoyed this. It made me feel what it’s like to actually be living there.

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