The tricolored blackbird as environmental subject/object/subject in an ecopoetic fiction
Written by Jennifer Handy
Posted in Poetry
Art by Ellen June Wright
The tricolored blackbird is a native of California, and reputedly the inspiration for the electronic sounds of R2D2, for which it received no credit, no benefits, no compensation: it is an officially threatened species. A feather from the epaulet can be used in divination. The blackbird is a tri-gendered subject. It is majestic. And economically oppressed. It is related to the red-winged blackbird, its far more common cousin. The tricolored blackbird of California is underprivileged; 80% of its urban population is located in federally designated food deserts. They subsist by dumpster diving. Those still in the wild eat their fledglings, Medea-like, in acts of vengeance against unfaithful partners. The blackbird’s rating on the Quality of Life Index (developed by M.D. Morris) is 16 out of 100. Its metalinguistic habits have not yet been explored. The tricolored blackbird is asexual and aromantic. Specimens in aviaries reproduce by IVF. In the wild, they rely heavily on social reproduction. A recent government grant provided $1.2 million to tag 10,000 tricolored blackbirds. The recipient is a major R1 institution with plans to attach electrodes to the blackbird’s brain and transliterate each caw into English with the long-term goal of constructing a Franco-English-Blackbird pidgin. No one asked the tricolored blackbird what it thinks of being tagged. Increasingly, they are found with BP oil slicked on their wings. Poachers have been known to kill them for a single red feather from its wing. The blackbird is itself and nothing else. But this one here is special, No. 07115. The blackbird is itself, but we all need some ID.