The Ark Of Foregone Conclusions Poem by Richard George

What if I told you
the Great Auk only died out
in 1929 on Jan Mayen?
Would you beam? Shrug? Shed a few less tears?

By steeple-aiguilles
on the front line, Chadians
unearth a still warm sabre.
Loggers in Tasmania
spot a tiger: they track it down
and saw off its head to flog on eBay.

Yangtse River Dolphin reports
will persist for half a century.

And Steller's child, safe, we prayed, beyond Thule...
In 1977
a fisherman stroked one.

That was the last one.