The Nightmare

Frenzied whirlwinds rushed out of the bleak night

Roaring and complaining with a vicious might 

Whirling grotesquely in a savage dance 

Singing viciously of life's impermanence. 

Terror gripped me in an icy clutch

Ah, the panic was indeed too much

The river roared, hissed and spluttered 

In black anger, the clouds muttered.

Out of a ragged sky the clouds stampeded. 

Angry thunderclaps fell, and vision impeded.

Suddenly life appeared ephemeral on that ship

Which was in a malicious tornado’s grip.

The blinding, zigzagging, teeth-grinding lightning 

 Was so frightening, I found my fists tightening.

Alas, I was a pathetic victim of the insane gale 

I spun in the air and caught the sail.

Deafened by the tumult, with terror numb

Relief as remote as for a beggar a bread crumb.

By the fury of the elements dumbfounded 

Absolutely dazed and terribly astounded.

I was like an insect clinging to a thin reed

With incredible rapacity! Mind numbing   greed!

I hung on with fingers of steel

Was the ship about to keel?

With a vicious jerk and a sudden lurch

 Alas, I was flung off my perch

 Would I drown in the watery abyss now?

Transforming an atheist into a believer - and how!

The vicious storm snorting at my impertinence  

Pounded and buffeted, bloated with belligerence 

 Flung me about, lashing me with revenge stout

I felt like a washer-man’s cloth, it was a total rout!

In no time, I disappeared into the foaming vortex

Not knowing what would follow nex'

Alas, now, I was in my watery shroud 

Far, far from the insane crowd.

But who were these faces bending over me

Why was a fish slithering over my knee?

"What are you muttering in your sleep?"

Said my daughter, with concern deep

Picking up Moby Dick from the floor.

I had never been so relieved before.

My nightmare was now a rosy dream

Skimmed milk now appeared as cream.

Towards the book shelf I sheepishly headed 

The nightmare in my mind firmly embedded.

I picked up Freud’s interpretation of dreams

Sheepish smiles having replaced my screams.