t i m l a n t z

from “Exeunt Omnes”

Ectopistes migratorius (Linnaeus)
Passenger Pigeon
Exterminated. Formerly very abundant
throughout a large part of North America.
This is the last known individual. It died
in captivity in September, 1914.¹

*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *
*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *
*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *
*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *
*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *
*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *
*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *
*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *
*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *
*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *
*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *
*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *
*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *
*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *
*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *
*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *
*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *
*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *
*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *
*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *
*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *
*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *
*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

¹One of two labels for Martha’s body when it was on display at the US National Museum (qtd. in A. W. Schorger, The Passenger Pigeon: Its Natural History and Extinction [Madison: U of Wisconsin P, 1955] 29). This body is now kept in the museum’s archived collection, not on view.

Martha, you died on September 1, 1914, yet no time system has been set up whereby you’re made into abbreviations. I propose AM and AE: anno migratorii and after extinction.

The migration flops, not flaps. If you run down the lane, remember you’ve been clipped, not clapped over. What makes a passenger not also a pilot?

Too many times the man in the sign has told me when I could go.

8
	Verses on the playground. A book reads, “Not by bread alone,”² which someone has translated as “BY THE WORD ONLY.” May g^_____ blind me. Continue in that tone, and he will, young man. Oh. Dear g^_____, why’s it always a sneak into power? Do you know caveat lector? It was a child from my songhood: everything needed my looking up. Notation in the following fluency: you arranged me in banded— I remember when water broke and ruined the movie and I couldn’t be bothered with the birth of my cousin, fled. Lead shot. Led the dogs. Break their barks if they neck. What I want most is to be surprised. ² Deuteronomy 8.3
next

9
	In the name of the sun, the fodder, and the wholly lost, all of which fill nothing, having nothing to exist wholly in themselves. In the name of our bored Jesus Wrist: ~~this connection of every body.~~ On top of Wristmas trees place I the buttery noodles, the food gathering of merriment (but only as long as it’s Wristmas D-Day). The bell-ringers outside the store beat the importance out of any baby mewling in straw. Why, have I seen? Seen what? Mein eyes have seen the repository of the bored. Whorey gory hallelujah! “At least they’re reading.” ≠ participation = selectivity Martha: Didn’t I abstain in the voting of my body and still get stuffed as yay? Who works in mysterious ways? Wrist. = bread, supposedly = wine, supposedly The aperture in participation—that is, we all flop together—becomes apparent: one bullet per ten birds.³ Do slaves refuse to complain in trying to fill themselves with us? Half bird per, and nobody’s full. ³ Schorger places the population of passenger pigeons between three billion and five billion birds, or twenty-five to forty percent of the continent’s total bird population, at the time of Europeans’ discovery of what is now North America (204–05). According to a late-seventeenth-century account quoted by Schorger: “There are such prodigious quantities of them [and their flocks are so dense] that forty or forty-five can be killed at a single discharge of a gun. This is not done ordinarily, but it is common to kill eight, ten, or twelve.... The Iroquois take them with nets as they fly by, sometimes catching from three to four hundred at a draw” (4).
next

12
	Define hope. Machine. Define machine. Nope.⁴ 6 protons 6 neutrons 6 electrons⁵ speak : exist :: ^_____ : exit correct usage: usury, us in a hurry What are you Jesusing? Shut up. Who killed me for my flight-taking parabola? The parable came with the land, which came with the— Martha: Nonsense. No story exists ab ovo. Who, then, knocks the chick about from above? ⁴ Matthea Harvey, “Introduction to the World” (Sad Little Breathing Machine [St. Paul: Graywolf, 2004] 3) 8–9. ⁵Cf. Revelation 13.18.
next
TIM LANTZ, after living in places with names like Mesick, Mt. Pleasant, and Normal, has moved to Seoul, South Korea, where he teaches English. His Web site is timlantz.com.

a l i c e b l u e n i n e

I S S N 1 5 5 9 - 6 5 6 7