The Kraken Wakes

The little silver fish
Scatter like shrapnel
As I plunge upward
From the black underworld.
The green waves break from my sides
As I roll up, forced by my season,
And before the tenth second
I can feel my own heat -
The wind can never cool as oceans do.


By mid-morning,
My skin has sweated into agony.
The turmoil of my intestines
Bloats out against my skin.
I'm too sick to struggle - I hang
In the thermals of pain,
Screaming against the slow, slow, slow
Rise toward descent.


And the madness of my pain
Seems to have infected everything -
Cities hack each other into blood;
Ships sink in firestorm; armies
Flail with sticks and crutches;
Obesity staggers toward coronary
Down the streets of starvation.

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Publication details: "The Kraken Wakes" was first published in "Craccum", Auckland, New Zealand. Publication date: 1977 June 5. It was posted on the Internet by Hugh Cook on 2003 March 18 Tuesday. Copyright © 1977, 2003 Hugh Cook. All rights reserved.

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