{"product_id":"_birddh","title":"The Bird is Gone, by Darren Higgins","description":"\u003cp align=\"justify\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cem data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003ePoetry, chapbook, 28 pages, from\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: #2b00ff;\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"color: #2b00ff;\"\u003e\u003ca style=\"color: #2b00ff;\" href=\"https:\/\/bottlecap.press\/collections\/bottlecap-features\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\" data-mce-style=\"color: #2b00ff;\" data-mce-href=\"https:\/\/bottlecap.press\/collections\/bottlecap-features\" target=\"_blank\"\u003eBottlecap Features\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp align=\"justify\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eOnce there were billions of passenger pigeons. Massive roiling flocks swept across North America like a storm, billions of pigeons, so many that they darkened the sky, passing in a roar, so many that branches cracked and crashed beneath them wherever they came to rest, so many that their excrement would lay a foot deep by the time they moved on. Their abundance was indescribable, almost mythical, their numbers seemingly inexhaustible. And yet, by 1914 there was only one passenger pigeon left. Martha, old and unwell, sat alone in her cage in the Cincinnati Zoo—and when she died on September 1 of that year, there were none. \u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eWhat happened? Overhunting, railroads, telegraph lines, development, the pigeons in their billions didn’t stand a chance. \u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eBut what did it feel like, being alive then, looking up in panic at the sky, the sun gone black? The poems in \u003cem\u003eThe Bird Is Gone\u003c\/em\u003e drop readers into the storm, the awe and fear, the greed, the waste, the odd lingering quiet after a hunt—“ruins everywhere \/ ruined.”\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp align=\"justify\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eDarren Higgins is a writer and artist living in Vermont with his two sons and whichever chipmunks, woodchucks, or skunks happen to be living under his barn. His poems, stories, interviews, and reviews have appeared in \u003cem\u003eThe Iowa Review\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eCosmonauts Avenue\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eJacket2\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eNuméro Cinq\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eTupelo Quarterly\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eBloodroot\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Rupture\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eSplit Rock Review\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eAtlas and Alice\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eNOON\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003ePoetry International\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Channel\u003c\/em\u003e, and elsewhere. Find out more at his website, darren-higgins.com.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Darren Higgins","offers":[{"title":"Chapbook","offer_id":47785413017915,"sku":"_BIRDDH","price":10.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Digital Download (PDF)","offer_id":47785413050683,"sku":"_BIRDDHe","price":7.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0062\/4420\/4614\/files\/birdfront_15f104a6-8237-4dba-a9b3-582168501bec.png?v=1707943674","url":"https:\/\/bottlecap.press\/products\/_birddh","provider":"Bottlecap Press","version":"1.0","type":"link"}