Into the Murderous Maws of Verne Valley

Five-thousand fathoms 

breach four leaky hours 

bending bow by the touch from one league

Cardinal vessels belt

releasing welted rings 

thrown by the silt of the elder-thing.

A black ore bilge 

relieved the old sea dogs heeled

starboard planks tore aft with vane

None too many consent 

to meet their futile end 

when a dry port is offered for drowning.

The galley rolls,

she's spilling 'er spoils

knackered lungs compress then cease 

Poor deckhands race 

t'wart the too late gangway

lost, to the saline street

Carbon stampings

drawing proto•plankton

dungeonous dangers lure and they ink

Beyond abyssal zone

the old reeker's bones

Lie entrenched on jagged peat

A virulent maw some two leagues tall

crunching marrow 

from the sump of the sink

Oh, deep-creeper 

that makes sleep deeper: 

dragged by hook, the net, and the reef...