Don’t You See?

Don’t You See?
 
The day was hotter than words can tell,
     So hot the jelly-fish wouldn’t jell.
The halibut went all to butter,
     And the catfish had only force to utter
A faint sea-mew - aye, though some have doubted,
     The carp he carped and the horn-pout pouted.
 
The sardonic sardine had his sly heart’s wish
     When the angel fish fought with the paradise-fish.
’Twas a sight gave the bluefish the blues to see,
     But the seal concealed a wicked glee -
 
The day it went from bad to worse,
     Till the pickerel picked the purse-crab’s purse.
 
And that crab felt crabbeder yet, no doubt,
     Because the oyster wouldn’t shell out.
The sculpin would sculp, but hadn’t a model,
     And the codfish begged for something to coddle.
 
But to both the dolphin refused its doll,
     Till the whale was obliged to whale them all.
 
by Katherine Lee Bates