Page:Backblock Ballads and Later Verses (C.J. Dennis, 1918).djvu/153

I felt the red blood course anew,
    I felt my pulses tingle;
And still the tiny chorus grew;
    "Young man, go forth and mingle!". . . .
Then, from an old, bashed can I saw
A lordly lobster wave a claw.

"Good fellow, have a care!" he said,
    "Stray not from pathways upper!
I am the ghost of one long dead,
    Slain for a sinful supper.
But once good works were done by me
Among the sinners of the sea.

"In life I roamed the vasty deep
    Engaged upon a mission,
Which was my fellow-fish to keep
    From swimming to perdition.
Now I am dead" (his voice grew thin),
"Alas! they mingle in the tin!

"Beware the blood that bounds and leaps!
    Your sinful feelings throttle.
Beware the imp that leers and peeps
    From out each tin and bottle!
A submarine reformer speaks.
Beware when gay Belinda squeaks!"