My Dog Errol

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.