Zachary Bos
In memoriam, the Bramble Cay Melomys

"never cute enough to rate much of a conservation effort"
               James Purtill, 19 Feb 2019, for ABC.net.au

You foraged wind-blown grass and seeds
under the moonlight from the coral sand
until the Anthropocene cleared you off the map
the way a hand sweeps crumbs from the table:

some stray wave or storm surge edged with foam
rising up to scrape your beachcomber nation of
small ears and paws and salt-scented fur into
the sea. There the last of you drowned. But,

erasure made you historic! The first
mammal species whose disappearance
is unambiguously the result of climate
change. Of warming earth, riding tides.

Being first won't bring you back, alas. Our
banquet carries on. You won't be the last.

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The Bramble Cay mosaic-tailed rat, Melomys rubicola, was found only on a single island in the Torres Strait between Australia and Papua New Guinea. The species was declared extinct in 2019.

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