The Whale
On the deep and moody ocean
Briny foam and steely grey
Lonely bow wash in drousy motion
Lulled my dreams at break of day
And the misty world was silent
In the light of morning skies
With the sails set full above me
And the sea spray in my eyes
And I can’t say how it happened
In the blinking of an eye
In a flash of foam and fury
Came the gulls with mournful cry
The great oceanwaters parted
And with head held proud and high
Burst the whale who spumed and started
With the ages in his eye
And his back was black and brawny
And his flukes would splash the sky
For a fragment of an instant
He met my gaze square in the eye
All that day across the ocean
By our ship full trimmed with sail
Swam the whale with leaps and bounding
Right beside our starboard rail
And his back was black and shiny
Like an onyx in the spray
And the crew of four and thirty
Joyful smiled to see him play
Then he churned the great Atlantic
With a flourish of his tail
And he blew a fatefull geyser
And he smiled, I swear he smiled
When I dream now of the ocean
Of the wild and foaming brine
It’s his eye that holds my vision
That same eye that gazed in mine
In my dreams I see him smiling
Somewhere on the sea
And I wonder when he’s sleeping
If sometimes, if sometimes
Maybe sometimes
He dreams of me
Stuwart M. Frank
Briny foam and steely grey
Lonely bow wash in drousy motion
Lulled my dreams at break of day
And the misty world was silent
In the light of morning skies
With the sails set full above me
And the sea spray in my eyes
And I can’t say how it happened
In the blinking of an eye
In a flash of foam and fury
Came the gulls with mournful cry
The great oceanwaters parted
And with head held proud and high
Burst the whale who spumed and started
With the ages in his eye
And his back was black and brawny
And his flukes would splash the sky
For a fragment of an instant
He met my gaze square in the eye
All that day across the ocean
By our ship full trimmed with sail
Swam the whale with leaps and bounding
Right beside our starboard rail
And his back was black and shiny
Like an onyx in the spray
And the crew of four and thirty
Joyful smiled to see him play
Then he churned the great Atlantic
With a flourish of his tail
And he blew a fatefull geyser
And he smiled, I swear he smiled
When I dream now of the ocean
Of the wild and foaming brine
It’s his eye that holds my vision
That same eye that gazed in mine
In my dreams I see him smiling
Somewhere on the sea
And I wonder when he’s sleeping
If sometimes, if sometimes
Maybe sometimes
He dreams of me
Stuwart M. Frank