Whereof Attacked by a Shark, as Icarus Waterlogged – April 12th, 1876

Ah, I bobbed in Poseidon’s great wet,
Resting after a far swim,
Seeing the shore far in mist’s dim
Unheeding the shark for to about to owe me debt

And you, O’ shark, where did you lurk
‘neath that great god’s water skirt?
When did you espy my form,
And frame murderous intent for to me be torn?
I had swum too far, swam too hubristically,
Icarus of the water. Did I see feathers
Feathering my arm? No, not realistically
But it is my simile, loose though its tethers.

The bite came, the mouth of knives,
The enumeration of regrets, the flashing of lives
A pain too great a pain for me to tell,
The screaming out of “Shit! What the hell!?”

The great gray beast, longer than I was tall
Reared up in the water, jaw smeared with my blood
Could it know that it, Dumpty like, faced a great fall?
That human fluid boils hotter, given revenge’s chewing cud?

Here I am happy I swim with a knife
Here I am glad to end a creature’s life,
Stem to stern I ripped a gash,
It roared its death with a bloody splash!

Safely to shore, I shook and sang
And in my head, an image rang,
Of a boy so brave to take on the sun,
(Despite its massive size advantage,
And the prodigious output of heat there from)
Who wouldn’t have been known as a failing son,
If only bring a knife he would,
He could have slashed the sun fair good.

Next: British voices

Poetry Home: Poetry

Main page: Home