chapter 12 the battle
Wavering lines in the dutiful mind,
Agape in my horror, adrift, unresigned,
Glamoured by weird iridescence of scale,
Encompassed miasma, a demon-fork tail...
Starved of experience, could I prevail?
Often refracted, my glorious dreams,
Fell rotted around me in tune with my screams.
Triumphant the sea beast! Assessing its eye!
Heartless and soulless; I never knew why-
Enamoured of terror I echoed its cry.
Bravery blossomed and made me a man,
Relinquishing horror, my essay was brief-
A howl of defiance, in flourished élan,
Vied with the creature- although I'd as lief
Engaged with a phantom of my disbelief.
Amorphous the figure, sea-barnacled skin,
Nethermost flippers, a horrible fin-
Death in its eyes- let the battle begin!
Underlying the muzzle, a'glint in the maw
No teeth I'd encountered so lethal before!
Woe was my wages, a blow to my head-
Assailed me with gashes that geysered and bled-
Relapsed on the deck I was draining and stunned...
Yes, wounded and bleeding – my ordeal begun.
Chapter 13 Eleven and Seven
Agape in my horror, adrift, unresigned,
Glamoured by weird iridescence of scale,
Encompassed miasma, a demon-fork tail...
Starved of experience, could I prevail?
Often refracted, my glorious dreams,
Fell rotted around me in tune with my screams.
Triumphant the sea beast! Assessing its eye!
Heartless and soulless; I never knew why-
Enamoured of terror I echoed its cry.
Bravery blossomed and made me a man,
Relinquishing horror, my essay was brief-
A howl of defiance, in flourished élan,
Vied with the creature- although I'd as lief
Engaged with a phantom of my disbelief.
Amorphous the figure, sea-barnacled skin,
Nethermost flippers, a horrible fin-
Death in its eyes- let the battle begin!
Underlying the muzzle, a'glint in the maw
No teeth I'd encountered so lethal before!
Woe was my wages, a blow to my head-
Assailed me with gashes that geysered and bled-
Relapsed on the deck I was draining and stunned...
Yes, wounded and bleeding – my ordeal begun.
Chapter 13 Eleven and Seven