NIGHTMARE

“There are very few monsters who warrant the fear we have of them.” – André Gide

I had a nightmare last night peopled by strange undersea creatures and awful dark brooding monsters that threatened by their lurking non-presence. The sea with all its mysteries and unknown vastness, its unimaginable depths is a frightening thing. No wonder our ancestors peopled it with sirens and tritons, Nereids and giant creatures, the Kraken and the Selkie, all ready to drown and tear apart all those who invaded their domain…

Seascape

Wild cries of sirens echo
Tearing the reigning silence
That until now lay serene
In deep red coral caverns.
Seaweed and sponges part, green sunrays disappear
As Nereids swim to escape from the frightening din.
Seahorses gallop away,
Tritons blowing warning horns, swim, hide
In blue darknesses of ocean woods.

And there, bare-breasted they appear,
Awfully shrieking frightening yelps,
With hair loose and nails sharpened:
The sirens pass by and pearly palaces
Are laid waste, their great halls empty.
But in a moment, silence returns;
A pregnant pause, a short hiatus,
An unbearable wait ensues.

A siren-song exotic resonates
A heavenly harmony is heard,
Ecstatic voices sing mellifluously
A melody devastating in its beauty.
Seductive songs ring out, airs magnetic
Attracting hapless mortals to the deep.

The luckless sailor dives in liquid satin
The sirens stop their witching song.
Their scalpel claws tear flesh,
Their leech lips suck spilling lifeblood.
The body twitches in drowned exsanguination
His face becomes so deathly pale,
His eyes dull, and with fleeting last gaze
Pursue his soul that rises up
As both chase the echoes of the deathly song.