A Perverted Elegy for Atlantis

A poem from 2011.

A Perverted Elegy for Atlantis

I. Skeletal Scaffolding

A lone skyscraper
Pokes out from beneath white waves,
It's atrophied framework, anorexic;
Voraciously breathing in the sea air,
Barnacles clinging to its sides
Or perhaps trying to forcibly re-submerge it.

Far off, rust shoots up the sides of
         other immobile titans.
Their structures lean over a trench
Like the teeth of a fly trap,
Preying, camouflaged in viral algae--
Or dejected; all having surrendered
Their sad efforts to escape to the world
Above the water.

II. A Funeral without Much Fanfare

Gigantic shadows stretch
Like dark tombstones;
The tendrils of dirt
Spelling out a calligraphic epitaph.
Ebon characters of dirt in ornate font
Tenaciously bubbling upwards,
Eddying indecisively
Nowhere.
 
The brilliant light of the sun
Spotlights an elaborate eulogy under an
         Absinthe-green sea.
Somewhere off, bell buoys toll the
         solemn notes of an impromptu requiem.
In filigreed script, something scribbled in the sea:
Illegibly eroded text.