Corvus niger

Why do ravens always wear black ?
Do they want to blend in with the pack ?
Are they just too shy to be pizzazz ?
Are they just too moody, cool and jazz ?
Why are they dressed in Sunday Best, not tweeds ?
Are they decked in mourning, veiled in widow’s weeds ?
Or are they maybe prison warders ?
Are they priests in holy orders ?
Are they fed’ral agents on the wing ?
Or do they merely want to go with ev’rything ?
Are they goths and metalheads – or maybe simply posh ?
Or are their other feathers in the wash ?
So why is it ravens always wear the black ?
(But if they dressed in mufty, I guess they’d get the sack.)

As a matter of fact, albino ravens do occassionally turn up, especially around Vancouver Island, as these gorgeous photos by Mike Yip show:

And while I’m at it, here’s a painting of one entitled Diwata by onrie07:

Jurassic Lark

My nephew is into his dinosaurs,
And he’s digging up mem’ries lain buried since school,
(But still neatly sorted in synaptic drawers),
With all of those crazy-long names by their scores,
Though actu’ly some of them sounded so cool !
How should we say it ?  The textbooks display it
Phonetic’ly – tie-ran-oh-sore-us – of course !
So easy to get it, there’s no need to sweat it !
But sometime’s a wrong ’un would lodge in all twisty –
And once it gets in there, it’s part of our hist’ry.

For instance, how much we all loved Diplodocus,
And gave that third syllable all of our focus.
So never Diplodocus, that sounded odd-i-cus,
Plodding along with no hocus to poke us.
And don’t get me started on cow-pat-a-saurus –
Your patsy falls flat, see – just hear how we chorus
This heavyweight’s name is – by god – Brontosaurus !
As known in the bones of all schoolyards before us.
So pronto, restore us our sauropod’s nommus –
Don’t think you can plunder our thunderbeast from us !

Which brings us around to the Puh-terodactyls –
To eight-year old boys they were neater than fractals !
We’d doubt they could flap much, but bet they soared high –
Though not dinosauruses…saur-iss-eez…saur-eye..?
Brackies and Plessies and Tritops abounded –
Though from diff’rent eras, so not all together –
They’re non-chronologicus, just to be clever.
We’d all love to fight for faves our faves for discussion
Like Dimetrodon, cos he sounded so Russian,
Or Archaeopt’ryx, with the bestest name ever.

And then there were the Trillobytes !
That’s how we called ’em in our local playground.
That’s how we called ’em, so that’s how they were –
And given a choice, then I’ll always prefer
Our primary version to t’other way round –
Brill-o-bites, thrill-o-bites, silly old Trillobytes,
Nobbly or spiky, or all armadillo-like !
Cambrian glamour to Permian quitters,
Those three-lobal, pan-global, crystal-eyed critters –
Heroic, and stoic, and Palaeozoic !

My nephew is into his dinosaurs,
But the toys have come on some since I was a lad
With the latest researching reflected, of course,
But the loss of those classic mistakes makes me sad –
Take Stegosaurus, in Lego or plastic,
It now looks fantastic, with tail held-up high –
But I’m far too au fait to its droopy behind,
With a second bum-brain (that we no longer find).
But I guess I can’t really complain that we’re wiser –
And hey, it’s still sporting a prize thagomizer !

But what of the T-rex, the king of the chompers ?
I see that he still bears him his stubby front arms,
But they’re no longer pronate – fergeddaboutit !
Cos my nephew informs me their bones will not fit,
So they turn-in their palms, like they’re waiting to clap.
And there’s vegan Iguanodon, slowest of stompers –
A ponderous chap with a Godzilla-stance ?
Forever a thumbs-up, the herbest of vores !
And yet now at a glance, he’s a boring old square,
When reduced to all-fours with his arse in the air !

If only we’d known of Velociraptor !
If only we’d known of the feathers and fuzz !
Ah well, I guess that we’ve moved on a chapter,
And I must adapt or I’ll end up extinct –
But I feel that old buzz, and I swear it’s because
Of the grin on my inner-twin child as he winked.
And I see Brontosaurus is back with a bang –
So that oughta well-learn ’em, don’t mess with this gang !
It’s time to return, but I’d best not get preachy –
I’ve much to catch-up, but my nephew can teach me.