The Nestor

 

The Nestor is a powerful bird

Is mainly what I have heard

With hook-like beak and wings of lace

This bird to avians is no disgrace.

Its span is measured not in yards

But in golden lightéd shards

It flies in huge concentric rings

And as it soars, much joy it brings.

It is the very prince of birds

Is mainly what I have heard.

 

For years the Nestors flew in flocks

Over seas and over rocks,

Their wings refracted many shrutis

A cornucopia of nature’s beauties,

Its feathers interlaced as one

The most reflective on its tum.

As it swooped and swerved aloft

A magic lightshow it did adopt

Flashing golds, as if a river in full spate,

Its call enough to make you quake.

 

Its eagle eye looking down

On man’s creations, every town.

What did it see from up on high?

Pollution, crowding it what it spied.

As man, his kind it did increase

More problems raised, as industry released

Natural balance it was turned

Natural order it was spurned

As man spewed stuff into the land

Destroying nature’s innate hand.

The natural order it was blunt

The Nestor man began to hunt

Its poise and form, its wings of light,

Its siren call, its grace of flight.

Mattered naught as humankind

Killed the birds that they could find.

 

Most were caught in clever traps

Eggs were stolen, chicks were snatched.

That is, until the day the last ever pair

To their nest returned unaware

That in the brave new world

Their future path would now unfold.

Seeing only shades of gray

These Nestors knew their future way.

Up towards the sun they flew

It was as if, they knew

Their time was up, their journey ended,

It was too late to be mended.

And as they climbed and they looked down

The earth itself was turning brown.

Greenfields, grasslands, and all the trees

Lay dying as the birds began to freeze.

In one last and mighty push,

Overhead the Hindu Kush,

Towards the sun they headed on

To its warmth they were drawn

Until, with their final breath,

They merged, as one, in certain death.

 

This was the day, the turning point

Man’s greed was him to disappoint

For as the sun and Nestors joined

Man’s destiny, with theirs, was truly coined

The earth resource all stripped bare,

Became real quiet, until a mighty flare

From the sun did leap towards the planet,

The ultimate celestial gamut,

And scorched the earth, and all did die.

It was the Nestor’s final cry.

 

As the earth lay still and black

One eggéd nest remained intact.

And as the land began to cool

From the nest was seen a jewel

A Nestor chick did crack its shell

And Phoenix-like emerged in Hell.

Alongside the nest a sprout of green,

It was as if it was a dream.

The Nestors grew and they did prosper

These brave new birds were now much stronger.

Their plumage golden, as liquid fire,

Into the skies they flew; new hope inspire.