Carl the craven raven
lived on the Maryland shore
He never would pronounce
that fatal “Nevermore”
You asked him why, he would reply
“What should I do it for?
Some birds do caw crass things all night
from a Mid-Atlantic steeple
but I do not believe it’s right
to terrify the people
What have they ever done to me?
What am I, a moral cripple?”
The other ravens judged that Carl
was too clever by half
They yanked out his feathers
and kicked him as they laughed
They wrenched his neck, they bruised his ribs
He looked like a giraffe
They threw him into the trunk of a car
drove to a sea of sand
kicked him a couple of more times
and left him there for dead
A seagull plucked out his eyes
A crab moved into his head