Fitzwilliam's Dodo

Fitzwilliam's Dodo  
   
It was the age of Austen  
Mad George enthroned  
when Mauritius came  
under the Empire's rule  
   
And with it, the tale  
of an impossible thing  
a flightless bird  
half the size of a man  
   
A bird no one had seen  
in a giant tortoise's age
time in which elders  
became the ancestors  
   
Long years before the unicorn  
had whisked the Endling away  
his tribe ravaged by factions  
of rats and humans and hogs
   
From bones in dank peat  
and stray horns upon  
the empty shingle shore  
they told their odd tales  
   
Legions lost to opportunity  
after aeons of isolation  
it wasn't a flaw in design  
but a paradigm shift  
   
To rats and humans and hogs  
   
And from the realms of lore  
Fitzwilliam's Dodo awoke  
in the memory of the unicorn  
to the voice of a selkie's round