Enduring wings absorb unending miles,
gliding, turning, husbanding the breeze,
efficient mother canvassing the seas,
patrolling, patient near secluded isles.
Persistence pays. She plunges toward the waves,
rewarded by a sparkle from the air,
a welcome sign of aromatic fare,
the seaborne nourishment her fledgling craves.
But unadapted instincts misconstrued. 
Once fruitful soil is salted now with stones.
She carries in her pack deceptive food
that never quiets ever-hungry moans;
and so regurgitating plastic to her brood,
she gets a charnel house of bottle caps and bones.

The earth’s a complex, integrated whole,
each part entwining in a common waltz.
And in such systems backups have a goal—
“Enable full recovery from faults.”
When chestnuts died, the birds found other homes.
When pigeons died, raccoons found other eggs.
Extinction’s cold, destabilizing foams
cannot collapse a house with many legs.
But pavement is a desert, hard and dead;
suburban lawns are barren for a bear.
A farmer’s field will bring the wheat to head,
but other creatures only perish there.
We celebrate our tower growing tall,
but all the while we undermine its wall.