Poetic Reflections: stark raving mad

madmen and monsters

There’s a saying I made up that’s older than me

Of lunar madness when it touches the sea

Down that silvery trail, shed like tears from a glower

Leading straight to peril, for such be its power

But whether a sailor or stuck on the sand

’Twas magic afoot at the moon’s command

This warning I’d issue in whispers of dread:

“Shun madmen and monsters or wish you were dead!”

At the ocean’s center, a far cry from shore

It is easy to forget what you can’t see no more

Twice as easy to imagine what doesn’t exist

Below heavens and stars where your eyes may insist

There’s a tentacled beast rising up with ten arms

Better say a quick prayer to protect you from harms

Like the dozen-humped whale-viper writhing the crests

A razorbacked spiderfish among the pests

There is many a wonder to behold in the brine

And so many a treachery to beware with eve’s shine

The safest I found was in daylight or gloom

Any else, you might visit a mariner’s tomb

As it happened, a monster charged out of the spray

Roaring ferocious and wanting to play

Our ship he would toy with by the fullest moon’s glimmer

And by dawn smash apart in that vile fading shimmer

Moonbeams make madmen of the staunchest fools

Inspiring the best friends to square off for duels

Inviting the lonely to love at all cost

Leading the dreamer to be hopelessly lost

Welcoming the wicked to commit foul deeds

Corrupting the innocent to have selfish needs

Exacting a toll if you dare cross her path

So pity the sailors who have incurred such wrath

I have as my witness a Manx named Bobbin

A tailless breed whose meows were like sobbin’

He yowled at the moon, perched high on my shoulders

We weathered the waves which were larger than boulders

He kept my nape warm as the wind slashed our faces

We soon approached Death and desired to trade places

For the harrowing hours that ensued were extreme

And I wish to this day it had been a bad dream

Out of Hades that creature must surely have slipped

More than enormous, rather jagged tipped

With horns and sharp plates, a spike-festooned glare

It could actually pierce you with only a stare

And its breath was akin to a needle storm

A gust could resemble a hornet swarm

With stingers for noses and teeth that bit

Claiming tiny gouges would leave a pit

With two flailing limbs from each side of its gourd

And a sizzling whip on its brow like a cord

That sea serpent walloped the side of the tub

Then lifted and slammed it as if a mere club

Again we were hoisted and shaken about

To be crashed to the water with a reverberant clout

Crew members fell off, and others would dive

Solely by miracle did any survive

The leviathan thundered a tremendous grumble

And gnashed its teeth to make a loud man humble

Twenty-four sailors it devoured, all told

Shrieking like babies who need a hold

The kitty and me clung to a life-rope

Soaked and then dangling, attempting to cope

As the ship hove aloft or plunked to the drink

The cat scratched my back while I clutched the brink

After hours it seemed, the ship’s hull was a wreck

Having shed scraps and shards and a portion of deck

In a field of flotsam, the crippled shell wilted

Listing, bedraggled, its belly was tilted

The ocean would swallow a proud vessel’s bulk

With nary a whimper, nor even a sulk

And hardly a glug or a gurgle it made

The old relic went under like a drowning mermaid

Bobbin and me released that fey line

Not wishing to be dragged to the bottom’s decline

But floating beside us with too broad a grin

His demeanor so abnormal, he might have been a twin

The captain gone madder than an angry flea

Seizing my wrist, he embarked on a spree

No ship to command, the fiend he would straddle

And ride him under without a paddle

The skipper towed me and I the cat

In a wake of bubbles gone in nothing flat

We submerged with haste like a submarine

In the fastest lunge I had ever seen

The captain hooting as he hugged its tail

Like a bronco-buster breaking out of jail

My breath was bated, the Manx quite miffed

At being underwater he spat and sniffed

The behemoth would waggle and agitate

Lashing in a frenzy like a hissy spate

So determined to unseat the wrangler’s latch

He struggled like a fisherman’s most challenging catch

Then shot from the water, arcing through air

To plummet straight downward with devil-may-care

Dripping, I gasped before the plunge

Ere soaking more dampness like a thirsty sponge

My mien was terrified, drained of valor

I must have worn an ashen pallor

But a ghastly countenance cannot betray

The depth of my loathing for Captain Quay

He swiveled to wink, and with a great mirth

Unhanded the beast so we drifted to earth

Alas, we were standing well beneath the sea

Which is where the lunatic aimed to throttle me

I had enough trouble to keep my mouth shut

Let alone fending off this moonstricken nut

Madmen and monsters can be such a pain

Just ask my cat, who was going insane

Bobbin’s eyes were bugged, his cheeks awfully stretched

Then he yelped with a blub and left the kook etched

Ten clawmark welts the length of his mug

When the captain let go, I was limp as a slug

I would be on that ocean bed this very day

A bloated corpse, my flesh chewed away

Yet miracles come when you least expect

The monster swam back as if to protect

He riddled Quay with a gale of pinpricks

Boosted me on his snout as if performing tricks

The Manx on my chest, I was elevated

To the surface where the cat and I respirated

We hugged each other in an exuberant manner

And climbed on debris like an S.O.S. banner

A search plane buzzed over; we sat up and waved

It wouldn’t be long before we were saved

But I’ll say it again so you understand

’Tis magic afoot at the moon’s command

This warning I issue in whispers of dread:

“Shun madmen and monsters or wish you were dead!”