The Kraken Wakes

Dedicated to the memory of John Wyndham
with thanks to Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Strange stars have plummeted to ocean deeps,
disturbed the Kraken’s lair, his ancient sleep
with shapes no human dares to dream. We keep

to shallows now; the ocean, last frontier
of human exploration, now appears
a nightmare country ruled by alien fear.

But see how out of ocean deeps they crawl,
ungainly forms and writhing limbs asprawl
with odor cacodaemoniacal!

And now the ice caps boil, the oceans rise
in roaring. No mere human enterprise
can stay his final fate: the Kraken dies.

Available! High-Voltage Lines, Knocking from Inside