in the midst of the Sixth
Great Extinction,
the plants and animals
dying around me,
I wish to stop thinking
of the ancient wails
I've heard from the throats of birds,
for the voices have shifted
direction in me
back toward primary silence.
In my late isolation
I wish to withdraw
into my heart.
—built on a pastiche of Uyghur poems by Ahmatjan Osman.
