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Category: Cockatoo

260 • Whipsnade

260 • Whipsnade

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Please note that your child, Mary-Lou,
Is banned from our trip to the zoo.
The keepers advise
That a girl of her size
Might get killed by a rogue cockatoo.

Please note, rather, that a truly enlightened society would ban all children from visiting all zoos, the better to hasten their abolition. Since vested interests will surely strive to keep them in business we must – however ruefully – concede that the extinguishing of a few toddlers, by vengeful Psittaciformes bursting forth from internment, might prove a useful catalyst in turning the tide of public opinion against such egregious institutions.

039 • Dead of night

039 • Dead of night

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From the coalhole, or under the floor,
Strange birdsong I’ve not heard before.
The monochrome coo
Of a black cockatoo?
Or the plaint of a plainclothes macaw?

Edgar Allan Poe … that middle name, prosaic though it may be, confers a certain gravity. I was named Richard Eric Lime in imitation of the rhythm of Poe’s name. I’ve yet to marry an underage cousin, however.