Seedsavers

 Photograph by Merlin D. Tuttle

Call of the Bloom

Some tropical flowers reflect sound so nectar-seeking bats can find them more easily.

Seedsavers

Across semiruined

sagging sands

We, the hard winged

carry the dust and seed

of chanced future.

Doubtless tongues clatter
unhinged roofs raise
a dismal glare
still we pilot
the silence of stones
 

Stolid

and everpresent
aloft dark rumor
we fly
the fragile hours

nearly human

Returning

soon

to the melt

of the colony.

Process notes: 

Bats are so well adapted to their environment that they have survived as a group for more than 50 million years.

The wings of bats are made up of cartilage with small amounts of calcium. The bones are similar to human fingers but they are more flexible.

 

Some individual members of this species were born with more skin extending between their arms and body, which gave them just a little bit more lift as they leaped through the air:

patagium

From Latin patagīum (“gilded edging of a woman's tunic”), from Ancient Greek παταγεῖον (patageion).

patagium (plural patagia)

1. The thin membrane that extends between the limbs and body of a bat or of gliding mammals

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/patagium

Bats are vital to the ecosystem. Fruit bats bring us over 450 commercial products, including 80 medicines. The seed dispersal and pollination activities of fruit and nectar eating bats are vital to the survival of rain forests. Seeds dropped by tropical bats account for up to 95% of forest re-growth on cleared land. Night blooming plants and trees depend on nectar eating bats for pollination. An excellent example is the baobab tree of eastern Africa that is so important to the survival of other kinds of wildlife it is referred to as the "Tree of Life." Alarmingly, bats are disappearing worldwide. They are now considered the most endangered land mammal in North America.

I apologize for not having citations for much of this information.  I have a special affinity with bats and have been collating these facts for a while. I do know that I consulted bat conservation international http://batcon.org/index.php/all-about-bats/intro-to-bats/subcategory/18.html-- which is a wonderful organization with a comprehensive site for learning more about bats.