Return to the Deep

Part I, Deep Retreat

The tremors were registering seismic jolts
Loosening the bridges from their cement bolts
Soon we had the white house on the bright red phone
Maybe send a probe into the midnight zone

We put a team together and prepared the bell
Scientific research in the depths of hell
A million dollar budget from a government vault
Seven miles down to a Franciscan fault

Sandwiches a cooler and a few jugs of water
Couldn’t shake the feeling they were lambs to the slaughter
Loaded on a vessel on the outgoing tide
To Marianas trench and they went over the side

Bubbles took a minute rising up to the top
Soon they took an hour and we could not stop
Looking out a porthole on a world of dark
Just beyond our lights we saw a monster shark

Then a giant squid thought we were something to eat
Wrapped around the bell at seven thousand feet
The scientist in charge gave a lever a knock
And made the squid let go with an electric shock

Downward ever downward dropped the diving bell
Down to do its research in the pits of hell
Far below what level had before been reached
Then we saw the bottom as a sandy beach

Strewn about the visible were giant clams
Sea anemone that looked like giant hands
Giant moray eels who lived without their eyes
And jellyfish that grew to an enormous size

Out we put the stanchions that anchored to the ground
Activated strobe lights and they lit us all around
Just beyond the range of vision something big appeared
Bigger than the monsters that as children we all feared

Return to the Deep

Part II, The Diving Bell

Deep within this bowl of punch
The crew wolfed down a meager lunch
With all eyes fixed in solemn stare
At something moving ‘round out there

Undulating back and forth
Tilting giant rocks with force
Sleek reptilian could it be
Remnant of prehistory

Just one look is all they asked
But it was big and it was fast
Just a moment without murk
One clear view of monster’s lurk

Then came current left to right
Wiped away forever night
And as the sea revealed her brand
The creature nestled in the sand

Cameras rolled and photos clicked
Scientists would kill for this
Data sent straight to the surface
Creature stirred and crew got nervous

Uppermost is all we saw
Snakish head with massive jaw
Golden eyes sat high atop
Two periscope antennae crop

Forked tongue darted in and out
Smelled for any prey about
Coloration it had lots
Of fiery pigmentation dots

We now were trapped both boy and girl
Face to face at the bottom of the world
With some Silurian spawn of Set
How more desperate could things get

Return to the Deep

Part III, Enter the Frogmen

The cable of steel was wound up from on high
Sudden unravelling came by the by
Twisting in water with troubling sound
Causing our bell to go spinning around

Soon the round bell spun at dizzying pace
Fogging the porthole in front of ones face
One moment here and the next he was gone
Wonderous reptile with hearts did abscond

Absence they say causes heart to grow fonder
So we had our frogmen attach a transponder
Done with a spear on Carcharodon carcharias
This situation a bit more precarious

‘Eel one and two, this is Liberty Bell
Say can you read, what’s it like out in hell?’
‘Roger that Eel, we read loud and clear
Pity the water, it’s murky out here!’

Then came the shouting, the rending of flesh
Serpent of set liked his meat warm and fresh
Out went two frogmen the one died out yonder
In the commotion attached a transponder

Out came the stanchions aboard climbed the frog
Up toward the surface and out of the fog
Transponder signal was powerful strong
Mayhap the golden eyed set swam along

Why would the signal originate here?
Something was wrong and the men filled with fear
Doing the math via closed circuit tele
Bell had been swallowed and in serpent’s belly

Change of direction the serpent did sound
Sped into network of holes in the ground
Ten thousand miles with the bell in his gut
Spat them out onto a beach near a hut

Joseph John Racano

Art: Marianneart04

Return to the Deep

Part IV, The Fall of New York

Air had run out inside of the bell
They stepped into paradise and out of hell
They lay on a beach with a salten aroma
Sleeping for hours as though in a coma

All were awoken by migrating birds
Mirrored below them were thundering herds
The wildest shoreline Atlantic or Pacific
Something was different I can’t be specific

The hut had been fashioned of bamboo and whicker
Standing abandoned their hopes were a-flicker
Surely the owner would want them to stay
Gaining their strength for their work or their play

All gathered leaves of banana and palm
Fashioned them into soft beds to sleep on
Cooked on a fire they ate giant clam
Fell once again sheer fatigue to a man

Off in the distance at first morning light
One pointed out a fabulous sight
There in the clouds rose a most famous skyline
In a state of decay that did not match the timeline

I know that building, the empire state
It’s fallen to pieces we must check the date
And back in the bell it was sure a surprise
The atomic clock showed a 3000 sunrise!

With sandwiches now in a shortened supply
The crew ate a boomeranged goose from the sky
Cooked over fire and very delicious
They knelt and gave reverence for the auspicious

Later they set about building a raft
Hoping to cross if the weather would last
How did New York fall in such disarray
And how did they get here in only one day?

Part V, Escape to New York

With trepidation and an ill wind
Again the journey did begin
Across the straits of Kennedy
The air force we would rather be

The weather warm and humid
The sea was rolling green
The raft was built as quickly
As was ever had been seen

Every once so often
A strike was felt below
Of giant hungry creatures here
From ages long ago

Soon we managed one to spear
Twas but a tentacle of fear
We threw it back into the sea
Profuse in our apology

We came ashore at Sheepshead Bay
Manhattan one stone’s throw away
Keeping sharp spears at the ready
Wolves were creeping at the jetty

Inland took the river bed
Guano landing on my head
Bats retaken central park
Leathery bullets in the dark

Finally we reached downtown
Lay our sharpened weapons down
What amazing sights to see
Mammoth scratching every tree

Somehow we had brought them back
Now extinct was railroad track
All the highways were destroyed
Likewise missiles all deployed

We set up camp on 59th
About mid-bridge we spent the night
Giving us the higher ground
Never had to turn around

When the morning sun awoke
Came the punchline of a joke
Long dead forest of the trees
New York was the last of these

Bullet casings on the ground
Converse sneakers hanging down
Skeletons enmeshed in battle
Humans bred as rich men’s cattle

Now we knew the truth to be
We turned our gazes to the sea
There was still so much to learn
But to the raft we did return

Art: Annartistry

Return to the Deep

Part VI, Time Dragon of Karazar

Scientists who now were seasoned
Climbed aboard the raft of reason
Made their way across the straits
Ate some fish the rest were bait

On the bamboo water slapped
Raging sunset at their back
Quiet was the crew’s return
Sky on fire set to burn

In the night they shared a dream
Serpent swam beside their beam
Breaking surface frothy foam
Phosphorescent guide back home

All awoke as they hit sand
Friends on shore extended hand
Such a tale we had to tell
Hoping they would take it well

Faded cities signs of fire
Men devoured by desire
Entire race had come undone
All been scorched beneath the sun

Then arrived the long canoe
Shaman head dress-laden crew
Popping out onto the shore
Breeze caressing what they wore

Flowing garb of cool pastel
Rhapsody through old conch shell
Then the woman Karazar
Walked out to the first sand bar

Sage in one hand charm in other
Calling on the ocean mother
Ocean mother was a dragon
Magic potion poured from flagon

Then the sky turned sacred purple
Cheers arose from mother’s people
Karazar spoke English well
‘Get your crew inside the bell!’

In we climbed and with good haste
For into shore the dragon raced
And beached herself with gaping maw
As we were rolled inside her jaw

Mother ocean swallowed whole
Scientists now played our role
Back into the sea she plunged
Could the future be expunged?

Deep the water winding maze
Through the porthole camera gazed
Filming every catacomb
As we took the long way home

Back through time and inner space
Could we save the human race
Questions only time can tell
She spat out the diving bell

Deep, epilogue

Courtrooms, papers, CNN
Welcomed us as long-lost friend
Planet Earth was showing signs
People read between the lines

Did they listen did we change?
Give the Bison back the range
Karazar said it’s all true-

Now the rest is up to you...

The End
Joseph John Racano
©@JosephJohnRacano/8/10/21

                                                                                                        Joseph John Racano