Whirlpool

A whirlpool stretched the fish down by the beach
Distorting scales and fins with sand and shells.
Young boys were kept from danger’s twisted reach
By fathers’ arms that held away the swells.

A boy named Nathan left his house one night
And climbed the promontory over the bay.
With curious eyes and guided by flashlight

He threw his cat into the cold tideway.

The furball spiraled down and swept within
The twirling liquid walls of blue and white.
Nate heard the screeching cat and watched it spin
As paws and whiskers sank into the night.

Nate stood upon the ledge and clenched a fist.
His eyebrows raised and teeth gnashed in his mouth
As terror rose, his legs began to twitch,
Nate turned around and started to run south.

But as he ran Nate tripped over a rock,
And fell just after squeezing out a shout.
He hit his head and breathed a gasp of shock
And slept there, for young Nate had been knocked out.

His parents came to search for him when day-
Light broke the peaceful slumbering of night.
They found him sitting, mumbling by the bay,
Reciting verses filled with feline fright.

Nate’s mother called the Town Hall to complain
While other mothers gathered in the schools.
They all banded together -- now a chain
Link fence protects their boys from whirling pools.