Tuesday, April 30, 2013

How Bats Get Through the Day...


(...)


Under a flyover's concrete span,
fruit bats
     hang upside-down

clinging together
in shadow, old-world
creatures rehomed
in an urbanized jungle.

The fruit trees
have been replanted,
the forest reforested,
nature is reserved;

but the caves
are long-gone, dug through
for highways
and high-speed trains.


***


Victoria has written an awesome article on the subject on poetic voice on dVerse Meeting at the Bar.  "Your Voice - Let's Hear It." So lets. 

[updated May2020]

16 comments:

Brian Miller said...

ugh...quite sad we have destroyed their habitats so they are force to make due with our leavings....our concrete.....

Victoria said...

There is a sadness in this, for sure. In Reno they've built so far up into the Sierra's and then can't understand why bears come down into town looking for food.

Mary said...

So sad about the fruit bats really. These little creatures work hard to survive. And deserve to.


Thanks for your comment in my blog. I know it is a pretty harsh perspective, but I went through the dying with a person who was positive and did the right things. It does change one's point of view about hope. Sad but realistically true.

henry clemmons said...

Infringment, trespass, tidal wave with no respect, in the name of what. You speak well. I love the use of the fruit bat.

Janine Bollée said...

Raven, this reads so comfortably qua sound.
And some bats didn't have to go looking for an overpass arch: they spend the day inches away from my head: in our attic, hanging in peace. Their peace, not mine: I find it rather worrying, but bats are protected and cannot be relocated elsewhere by law.Puts us humans in our place.

brudberg said...

Good examples on the addoptions that nature has to do as we "conquer" it. And some bats are better of than other I understand

TCPC said...

We do find a way to push others aside isnt it? wonder what would happen if these animals and other winged friends think likewise!

Charleen said...

We see these creatures in places they "don't belong" but hardly stop to wonder if it us who don't belong where they are.

Laurie Kolp said...

I know, it's sad... powerful poem.

Last week in my town, a sleeping boy was bitten by a bat that had somehow gotten in his home.

Ravenblack said...

Brian, Victoria, Mary, Henry, Aprille, Bjorn, Akila, Charleen and Laurie. Thanks for your comments and thoughts on this.

I was really surprised the bats could even hang onto concrete underside like that. It was because of the squeaking that I looked up and saw them, and it was in the day time...so I guess it wasn't a comfortable place for them to settle but nowhere else to go.

I guess we have expanded ourselves that we are pushing them aside. I like the comment by Akila, they don't fight back, or maybe they just can't outdo our aggressiveness.

Bats get into houses here as well. And squirrels, and monkeys and wild boars in the park... and while we make some effort in having green spaces, somehow I think most people have little respect nature as one who having her own space.

Claudia said...

concrete instead of fruit trees...i can imagine how much they suffer...so sad when they're robbed of their home in a way...

Anonymous said...

The title really set this poem up nicely. I like the feel of them getting through the day and adapting to modernity - struggling like we all (creatures) do.

Ravenblack said...

Thanks for your feedback and perspectives, Claudia and Rowan.

Jannie Funster said...

Wow! that sure cuts close to home. Do you know about Austin, Tx' "Bat Bridge" colony? Yep, our Congress St. bridge houses like -- over a million Mexican Free Tailed bats who in the summer eat one crapload of mosquitoes each night. There are actually Bat Boat excursions you can watch their nightly flight from. July to maybe end of Sept. Quite the sunset happening to see them all swarm out and away.

xoxoxo

dsnake1 said...

i think wild animals can adapt pretty well to our urban jungle, and it's not just the rats and crows. i have seen bats hanging out at the viaducts of the Sheares Bridge, a kite nesting high up in a tower antenna at my workplace, and mynahs setting up home on the train viaducts. I have seen skink, squirrels, unknown bird species, and monitor lizards in our parks, and thankfully, no snakes. :)

Ravenblack said...

Jannie: That sounds like a cool sight. :)

dsnake: Unlike humans, they simply push on and make out what they can. Some animals will still have specific needs. Some things we are doing right -- like turning water canals back into rivers (or river-like), cuz I've seen hawks circle over Bishan Park now and many different water birds.


Sorry for the late response. I've been away in Colorado for a work related conference and a bit of a break. :)