Jonah and the Whale

DOUBT would oftentimes assail
Me, a youth, about the Whale,
When I feared I had no bona
I’uies in the Whale and Jonah.

There are very many species
On the Ocean’s superficies
Of those large, marine mammalia
Called Cetacea or Whalia,
Which could give an exhibition
Of extremes of deglutition.
Yes; a whale a man could swallow
And eject him from the hollow
Of his tummy if ingestion
Interfered with his digestion.
Jonah’s Whale, it seems, was loath:
But I’ve got to swallow both.

So my youthful faith was shaken
Until I was duly taken,
To undo this mental twist,
To an old Psychiatrist,
To a man with mind so supple
That my little boyish scruple
Touching Jonah and the Whale
Could no more my faith assail.

“First,”he said, “our callow youth
Is too anxious for truth.
“What is truth?' asked jesting Pontius.
What’s the Whale hut the Subconscious
Of poor Jonah ? And the ’Whale’
Is what will engulf us all
If we cannot sublimate it.
Jonah managed to abate it
When he spent that lost week-end
In his Whale. You see, my friend,
In the reign of Jeroboam
There were queer things in the foam.”

I wished my shaky faith remained:
Some things are better unexplained.