At the Edge of the Amazon, by Sara Letourneau

Orchids and Hummingbird, by Martin Johnson Heade (USA) c. 1875-83

At the Edge of the Amazon
 
 
after Orchids and Hummingbird by Martin Johnson Heade
 
Now, this is peace:
In southern Brazil, storm clouds
part like curtains in a dark room,
revealing unbroken sky beyond. 
Suddenly the world below is brighter, 
distant mountains visible, the tree canopy
rolling in chartreuse waves, 
the five-fingered leaves of kapoks
and trefoils of rubber trees holding still.
Not even a breeze rustles them.
 
It’s so still that you barely notice
the ivy enrobing the closest branch,
its thin, climbing tendrils bursting
with emerald hearts. It’s so still
that two cattleya orchids, twins
with bone-white petals and frilled
fuchsia skirts for labellums, look back
at you inquisitively. So still that a male
Brazilian ruby remains perched and at rest,
his throat’s jewellescent patch the same color
as the orchid tongues he’ll soon drink from.
 
What is not peace
is the place another hummingbird calls home
two centuries later and half a country away.
At the edge of the Amazon, he scurries about, 
seeking flowers to feed from and finding few.
Trees he used to roost in have been cut down,
felled on scorched soil.
 
Some days, flames lash out for his tail feathers,
ravenous and wild. Thick smoke obscures
his vision. Where orchids, monkey brush,
and heliconia once grew is now
charred black, or browned with dying.
Yes, it will all green over again someday,
but as grass for farmers and cattle,
things not of this rainforest.
 
The hummingbird does not know this.
He only knows there are fewer branches
to give him respite, fewer blossoms
to sate his hunger. Whenever he lands
on an orchid, the flower’s expression
is open and tilted, the face of a curious child
who repeats the question that neither human
nor animal is prepared to answer: 
What will happen to the hummingbird
if all the flowers disappear?
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Sara Letourneau

Sara Letourneau is the author of Wild Gardens (Kelsay Books, 2024). She’s also a book editor and writing coach at Heart of the Story Editorial & Coaching Services; the cofounder and cohost of the Pour Me a Poem open mic in Mansfield, Massachusetts; and the co-editor of the Pour Me a Poem anthology. Her poetry has won the 2023 Beals Prize for Poetry and the Blue Institute’s 2020 Words on Water contest. Some of her recent work can be found in Autumn Sky Poetry Daily, Nixes Mate Review, Silver Birch Press, and Third Wednesday Magazine.

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