Dear Millennium, on the Extinction of Migrant Doves

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This photograph shows a dove flying in the air, with the background being a gray and beige blend. — Photo by Vivek Doshi on Unsplash

A century ago, our skies were rife with Ectopistes migratorius— 
wild passenger pigeons—doves. A boy could shoot up in the air,
                      and thundering flocks would rain
on his face, on his shoulders—a miraculous abundance 
                                  of quail in this desert.

Ruthlessly, we shot bird after bird
                                  darkening the noons with migrations 
for miles on miles. Why, in the case of this genocide,
                were Homo sapiens the only reason
                                  for this extinction of doves? We shot 
faster than they multiplied—

at this rate, any population will vanish. Yet we say 
                 doves are signs of peace.
Dear millennium, why do we mistreat
                 our migrants the same way? First our wild doves 
vanished. Now honeybees perish in their own colonies.
                                Dear millennium, what shall we do 
                without doves or honeybees? What shall we do
                                                 without our wayfaring pilgrims of peace, 
                                                                 those who seek refuge among us?

Karen An-hwei Lee

Karen An-hwei Lee is the author of The Maze of Transparencies (Ellipsis Press, 2019), Phyla of Joy (Tupelo, 2012), Ardor (Tupelo, 2008), and In Medias Res (Sarabande, 2004), winner of the Kathryn A. Morton Prize and the Norma Farber First Book Award from the Poetry Society of America. Her first novel, Sonata in K, was published in 2017. A book of literary criticism, Anglophone Literatures in the Asian Diaspora (Cambria, 2013), was selected for the Cambria Sinophone World Series, and she is the translator of Doubled Radiance: Poetry & Prose of Li Qingzhao (Singing Bone Press, 2018), the first volume in English to collect Li’s work in both genres.

Lee’s work appears in journals such as The American Poet, Poetry, Kenyon Review, Gulf Coast, Journal of Feminist Studies & Religion, Iowa Review, and IMAGE: Art, Faith, & Mystery, and she was recognized by the Prairie Schooner / Glenna Luschei Award. The recipient of an NEA Fellowship, Lee currently serves in the administration at Point Loma Nazarene University in Southern California. She earned an MFA from the Program in Literary Arts at Brown University and a PhD in British & American Literature from the University of California, Berkeley.

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