The Arkanean

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