Frank Sinatra and the Whale

He thought it was Benny Goodman

off the Jersey shore,

but it was just a humpback

who came close to land

as he practised scales

at Cape May.

‘Do be doo, ‘Sinatra wailed,

and the whale said,

accusatorily,

‘I saw you pissing in the sea.’

‘What of it,’

Old Blue Eyes shrugged,

‘The ocean belongs to me.’

Liking the cut of his jib,

Frankie took him on tour.

Sammy Davis got on famously

with the whale,

but Peter Lawson

resented the room

he took up in the bars

and the constant need for krill.