©1991 Ken Clinger

I wake up at night to a strange light beam.
Above my head, it’s the Elephant Queen.
She says, “Just call me Josephine,
and come with me, on my submarine.”

I say, “This must surely be a dream.”
She says, “Dreams are more real than you think they seem.
You’ve been overdosed by Earth’s regime.
Now come with me, on my submarine.”

Then, in the air, with a blinding gleam,
appears a golden submarine.
It seems to be styled on an elephant theme.
Just the thing for an elephant queen.

The next thing I know, I’m sitting in between
Josephine and a cat named Dean.
They point my attention to a screen,
and there I see the strangest scene.

A whale is dancing with a green sardine,
while a sea cow sings “Begin The Beguine”,
and she adds a line about benzedrine,
and its secret use in the Argentine.

I turn my eyes to Josephine,
who laughs and says, “What you’ve just seen
is not unusual, quite routine
when you’re riding in my submarine.”

I turn my eyes back to the screen:
The sea cow is eating a nectarine,
while reading from a magazine:
the latest news from the Argentine.

She says, “It’s really quite obscene,
how the benzedrine makes the land cows mean.
They talk nonstop, and then they scream
about their lack of haute cuisine.”

Then the whale and the green sardine,
they build a house by a deep ravine,
and stock their freezer with ice cream.
(They know the sea cow’s just turned sixteen.)

Then they come up to the screen,
and say, “Come out of your submarine.
Its time to break the sea cow’s routine,
with her concern for the Argentine.

“And be sure to bring your tambourines,
You know how they can get so unclean,
We have just bought a new machine,
that cleanses them so they’re more than clean.”

Then the whale and the green sardine,
They say, “Oh Sea Cow, leave your magazine,
come visit us by the deep ravine,
we’ve got guests from the submarine.”

“You can sing ‘Begin the Beguine’
while we dance around with our tambourines.
You know that they’ll be more than clean,
after they’ve been in our new machine.”

So we went to the house by the deep ravine.
The whale went to the freezer and brought out the ice cream.
We sang to the sea cow, “Happy Sixteen!”.
Then we had our bowls of ice cream.

And I danced with Josephine.
The very first time I danced with an elephant queen.
She made me sigh, she was so serene,
the way she played her tambourine.

The whale, he danced with the cat named Dean,
while Sea Cow sang “Begin the Beguine”.
We ignored the lines about benzedrine,
and its secret use in the Argentine.

After awhile, the elephant queen,
she says, “I hope you don’t think I’m mean,
but we have to leave in my submarine,
before the daylight intervenes.”

So we thanked the whale and the green sardine,
as the sea cow sings “Begin the Beguine”
one last time, as we leave the scene
and take off in the submarine.

The next thing I know, the alarm clock rings,
and the sun is sending out its beams.
Then I hear a voice, and it’s Josephine’s.
She says, “I’ll come back tonight with my submarine.”

So now I’ll watch for that strange light beam,
and another trip with the Elephant Queen,
and once again see the cat named Dean,
as we ride off in the submarine.