And Now These Three Remain

A Paean for the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker

An illustration of the ivory-billed woodpecker, featured in the 1825 book, “The birds of North America.” Credit: Biodiversity Heritage Library/Public Domain

And Now These Three Remain

Who could it be but the Lord God Bird
who glides so graceful from tree to tree? 
Faith of our fathers, bound by our mothers, 
stretched past the horizon of our sister 
and brother's little lost mustard seed.

Who could it be but the Good Lord Bird
when trumpets sound tintinnabuli? Lost bird 
of bayou and ancient forest. Living myth. Living mystery. 
Bark of bald cypress stripped bare as Adam's breast,
oval nest. Forest fire rings ruination but manifests privacy.

Who could it be but the Holy Grail Bird
to ivory-bill drill old growth thus righteously?
Rat-a-tat-tat pine beetle attacks. Then hammer out
its Lutheran litany. Wings spread wide, woodpecker-glides 
to reveal all that squirms to destroy the wood from within.

Who could it be but the Great God Bird 
flying angelheaded-high? To witness is to cry: Holy! Holy! Holy! 
Is to raise voice in quavering exultation. Hope is a thing
80 years unseen, but the question hangs pregnant and green 
in the breathing air: are you sacrifice or our salvation?

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Matt writes…

I will let this piece glide on its own wide wings, but if you would like to know a little more about the ivory-billed woodpecker, here's an excellent article from 2015: https://www.wisconsinacademy.org/magazine/resurrection-lord-god-bird. There have been purported sightings of the ivory-billed woodpecker as recently as 2023. Here's hoping they remain with us, even if unseen. 

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Poet, librarian, raconteur Matt Layne has been poking hornet's nests and looking under rocks for lizards and snakes since he was knee-high to a peanut peg. A founding member of the 1990s improvisational poetry collective, The Kevorkian Skull poets, Layne believes in the radical transformative power found in the intersection of poetry and art, and he wants you to write your truth and share it out loud. A multiple Hackney Award winning writer, he has also been recognized by the National Society of Arts and Letters and been featured in Peek Magazine, Birmingham Arts Journal, Steel Toe Review, B-Metro, and elsewhere. Look for him at your local library.

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