POETRY ON MEDIUM

The Arkanean

A poetic fantasy of a world overtaken by the watery deep

I All those left On the face of the land Boarded the great Arkanean The living city Grown, cast, and built To sail the vast Realm swallowing sea

II A world once consumed By massive, teeming cities Industry, advancement Progress Light-shedders Towering skylines eroded Evolved into sinking deserts Ranging edge-to-edge Spilling from every crumbling cliff Roving bands Fueled by desperation Traversing once lush forests Now petrified, rocky, dead Dry inland sea beds Bring cracked feet In contact with Fossilized creatures Flippered and webbed

III One day, the sightless seers Collected all the sobbing tears Into foggy glass bottles Blown from Granules of sand Gathered As the penitent poured Like lemmings Into the vibrant Evaporating azure expanse The dying, acidic land Driving every madman From the scorched Cracked clay A ritual was poured From the heart of every Healer whom life continued To adore Their song shook the ground Broke the heart of the sun and cloud Finally causing Beads of condensation Heavy and wet to collect and Plummet from the firmament Drenching those who had Gone without their entire Parched lives

IV Rejoicing lasted for weeks Rippling puddles As their heels Rhythmic pounding hardly ceased Subtly forming into Shivering lakes Crowds breaking out Into clamorous song Thunderous dance Giving thanks until the Droplets failed to roll From barren land into Teeming sea Saturating the repellent ground Every low point eaten up By the rising tide of Reality

V Every available plank Every once-living branch Reclaimed The fledgling green Scraped from the Newly drowning plane Transplanted Shaped and formed into Slats and sung into Sprouting by voices untamed A vessel miraculously Crowning Round the needs of Dwindling humanity Only surviving in the Event of successful Inhabitant mobility The great Arkanean Answering the desperate cries of Those waterlogged remains Of humankind’s last band Fifteen floors high Scoured with the sands of sorrow Held together with nails of Twice refined dreams To save mortalities’ future and Search the endlessly rising rains Built on a dry patch of land In a once paradisaic Tropical hidden cove Set up on massive stone blocks And costly wooden scaffolding To shape the swirling stairs connecting The massive gaping mouth Of a deck to the towering top of This sky-kissing catastrophe

VI Floating as the water rose Wooden layers repurposed Into reinforcements for the Sweeping ascending entryway The colossal rudder and counterbalance Formed Waiting for the perfect moment When blessed water Raises the floating capital To the level of the blind cliffs Their saving grace And launching point for humanity’s Final voyage into the hungry mist

VII All finally aboard the Amalgamation Of wood, metal, and flora The embodiment of Human indignation Unwilling to go quietly into The soaking darkness of eternity All ready to sail on the Apocalyptic pilgrimage across a Swallowing sea overtaking the Entire planetary body

VIII Embarkation point Fading in the past Like the red, arid sands Now, turned into the Floor of an Ever-deepening sea A supposedly Impossible feat To reach that Settling, murky sediment As any lost Now fall on the former land Never finding the true Depths Lamentation Droning songs of woe Tales of terrors Gone unknown Sung from the bow Hung from the mast Just as joyful tunes And melodious psalms Rang aloud, striking the stern With a most cheerful Sound as the global Crossing commenced

IX Traveling with no set path No designated expectation Tends to lead to immense Revelation The unthinking, jubilant praise When on the thousandth day Spotted Off starboard side Was a fleet of carriers And barges a rag-tag band A metropolis bounding O’er the bounty main

X These long bereft of anything Resembling hope Thought themselves the last A remnant The only that remained The whole world o’re Through the mass aboard The massive Arkanean Passes a rapturous Wave, cries of exuberance Some begin to race up the Twisting stairs to get better views One frenzied man desperate to Leave the reeking, rocking raft He’d been remitted to for What had started To feel like a soaking eternity Sprinted up the Circuitous steps leaping onto The waving claret banner Using the weight of his Dangling legs Swinging wide to Gather momentum Without leaving himself Time to decelerate or think He sailed in a slow-motion arc Over the drink Instead of landing in The midst of their deck with a thud He sailed straight over that, too And splash Into the bottomless blue He goes

XI Panic ensues The wailing alarm sounds Out goes the call,”Man overboard” Over two years at sea, had Seen dead a plenty This was their first casualty Of the ocean wars As they soon found out These weren’t the only ships about And they weren’t stopping This flotilla was bounding across Rising waves Fleeing their stalkers The Arkanean was ill-equipped To turn and dash Braced itself for The worst Readied themselves for a clash

XII There was never any chance A frigate approached Blasting its cannons Aiming first for the top Taking each tier out laughing Bones splintering as easily As if they were wood The screams of the innocent Like pepper for their meager food The levels tumble and collapse As another round of iron smashes As the fire Spreads to the block one lower Mired screaming chokes Thousands more splash down and Crush those below Attempting to avoid Their cold, sodden fate Until the hull starts taking rounds Without so much as one return volley Ending all hope In a tsunami-like finale

XIII The Arkanean had one fatal flaw An island alone Needs no weapon nor guard The shortsighted elders Failed to provide for Their needy flock Any means to defend or repel They’d long ago decided their land And lives were the only existent Or worthy Of obtaining the future prize

XIV Drowning is the kinder fate As the marauders draw harpoons Reel in the catch of the day The sun, the sea It turns men mad That’s on a good day When sense they’ve had What of those who leave land Senseless with fear? Devoid of righteousness Like shattering spears Their targets hunt Waging destruction and death The satisfaction they sought Though humanity Planned and prayed The evils of fear and Mindless burning rage Extinction has wrought The final page, torn and tossed

K.B. Silver

This is both a narrative poem and an ekphrastic poem. I created that introductory image while trying to get a specific image for another piece of poetry. My prompting process goes about like this. Start with general terms, see what the generator spits out, adjust the models first to ensure I have the right feel and look, and then become more detailed in my terms.

Sometimes, I get a few oddballs that aren’t bad; they just weren’t what I was looking for. I keep the good ones I don’t need, and use them some other way. In this case, I was inspired to write an apocalyptic tale of a world in an environmental crisis. It doesn’t actually take that much imagination now that I think of it.

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