On Saturday 13 September 1986, Raven George, enlisted 1975,
was posted to the Welsh Mountain Zoo. Conduct unsatisfactory,
service therefore no longer required.
George Younghusband’s The Tower from Within
claims the Earl of Dunraven believed his ravens
were all the avatars of King Brân the Blessed
by which he kept watch over every cantref of Britain.
So it was with George. And when he tore
the aerials from the Tower Hamlets rooftops
he knew his exile irrevocable
only as Arthur’s rest in Avalon
rex quondam rexque futurus his time
shall shed its feathers and its scapulae
slight and fissile as a sheaf of shale,
recalled to serve our less-than-oscine song.
Send Letters To:
The Editor
London Review of Books,
28 Little Russell Street
London, WC1A 2HN
letters@lrb.co.uk
Please include name, address, and a telephone number.
