Introduction

: ...from the collection (unpublished) entitled "Unusual Birds of Many Lands."

The Albatrice

If you are on the Isle of Skye
And see an Albatrice fly by,
Crying a melancholy cry...

And if he peers to left and right,
And cries again as if in fright,
You'd think him lost and you'd be right.

Perhaps an arrow on the ground
Pointing to where he should be bound
Might guide him as he circles round?

It is not helpful when the police
Insist "That's not an Albatrice,
A bird indigenous to Greece."

And then they tend to ramble on
About the blessed Parthenon
Until the Albatrice has gone.

For conscientous policemen hate
When birds that cannot navigate
Become a charge upon the State.

And that is why the Albatrice
Sits, stuffed, on many a mantelpiece,
Still wondering if it is the case
He should be in some other place.

Copyright; Joe Pamanian