Moby's Seafood Revenge

When a new restaurant opened doors just last week,
I decided that I would go in for a peek.
It was seafood galore with the theme, Moby Dick,
with a whale of a menu from which one could pick.

  (I could hear Long John Silver’s from clear across town
    cry, “Avast aye ye matey, I hope that ye drown!”
    Then I looked for a cannonball thinking they’d aim,
    yet despite expectation no cannonball came.)

So I stood at the door--to continue this tale--
and the door was shaped like the jaw of a white whale.
As I entered Revenge along with a loud throng,
from the ambiance I knew I hadn’t gone wrong.

Going up to the counter remained a real trip;
you would think you were aboard an old whaling ship.
And there stenciled was Pequod* so clear on the rail
with a hefty harpoon o’er the counter as well.

Then I looked at the menu which took up a wall
when a patron ahead of me received a call
for her entree entitled, Ahab’s Golden Eyes,
which included two pieces of fish and French fries.

  (As I looked in the back where the cook breads fillet,
    for a moment I thought it was a Melville play.
    There a cook in disgruntle, like storm on the sea,
    took a fork to fillet and cried, “I stab at thee!”)

It was finally my time to hearten my want,
(and indeed I must eat for I hear I am gaunt.)
So without hesitation I ordered, The Whale,
which was salmon and chicken and slaw in a pail.

O the pail was not like the pail found at the beach,
but remained in the range of one’s appetite reach.
And at Moby’s the grilled fish is served in a glaze
with a taste which remains in the mouth for two days.

I looked long at a table and dish to my right
which contained an arrangement of fishy delight.
So I asked of a lady with facial enjoy
what it was, and she answered, “It’s Queequeg Ahoy!”

I devoured my meal and then I felt ship-shape
and I held in esteem this new seafood escape.
Thus I asked for the manager since things were swell:
when he came out he just said, “Call me Ishmael.”


40 Lines (Anapestic Tetrameter)
Writer’s Cramp
November 9, 2013

*Of course, Pequod is the name of the ship in Moby Dick, by Herman Melville.
  The other names in the poem are characters from the novel as well, Captain Ahab,
  of course, Queequeg, and Ishmael.