N is for Nate who got caught in a pully

N is for Nate who got stuck in a pulley
04/17/2008 - National Poetry Month post #20, part of The Unlucky Twenty-Six

Nathaniel William Hawthorne Tate
was sent to Liverpool
because his parents grew to hate
how much he was a fool.
And so when he was old enough
he said, "No way," and they said, "Tough!"
and packed him up with all his stuff
off to a boarding school.

Now, Nate was quite a stupid lad
and never went to class,
and even though he could not add
the teachers let him pass.
They praised him for the sports he played
and brought him cups of lemonade
because his father always paid--
the privelege of class.

Nate tried his hand out on the links
and on the cricket ground
but everybody yelled, "He stinks!"
His failure was reknowned.
Then he tried boxing--got beat up;
tried fencing but he got cut up;
Then he took water polo up
but all his horses drowned.

But then one day he took a boat
out on the sea to sail it;
it almost didn't even float
and so he had to bail it.
He sailed it through a day and night
til he was so far out of sight
he thought a letter he might write
but nowhere could he mail it.

When in a storm a line went slack,
Nate found a winch was bent.
The night was cold and wet and black;
the storm would not relent.
so in the dark Nate tried to grope,
but round his neck was wound the rope.
The wind whipped up and took all hope
as up the mast he went.

One of my writing goals for 2008 is to write at least one light verse or poem every week in addition to my haiku wednesday and fiction friday posts. I will try to do this on Mondays.