Christine Lavin

It is the first of September
Rockaway Beach, Queens
the last weekend of the summer
one of those idyllic scenes
When all of a sudden a fin
slices through the water
strikes fear in the hearts
of every parent son and daughter

it's a six-foot thresher shark
heading for the shore
the kind of scary animal
a human can't ignore
The movie "Jaws" flashes through
the mind of every swimmer
those spiky teeth!    those beady eyes!
there is no image grimmer

Think about that movie
and the havoc that ensued
that monster shark looked at us
as tasty bits of food
And to this day a shark
can cause a panic -- people drown
but this is New York City
we're a different kind of town

That 6-foot shark
swims straight up to the beach
when he's stranded on the sand
the little children screech
And now he's surrounded
by a tough New York crowd . . .
what happens next is the kind of thing
that makes New Yorkers proud

Do they beat this scary shark?
do they let him die?
do they leave him for the seagulls
circling in the sky?
Do they run in horror? No . . .
rather than flee
those unflinching New Yorkers
push the shark back out to sea

They hold their breath because at first
he barely moves his fins
someone sighs, "ahhh, some ya lose
some ya wins"  but they
watch him regain his strength
flip his tail, disappear
then those crazy, brave New Yorkers
give that shark a rousing cheer

Maybe it's professional courtesy
maybe it's who we are
maybe it's an incident
some would call bizarre
But even sharks in trouble
in New York can find a friend
unlike the shark in "Jaws"
this shark tale has a happy end

Unlike the shark in "Jaws"
this shark tale has a happy end!