down and blind biting harder into the core
bleeding out from the wounded ocean floor
driven mad into the silent rift
haunted by the waking celestial spore

immortal at the bottom of the world
no birth or death for the first to replicate
spreading its tendrils open out
feasting while we're chained to the floor

feed
baseline test for detecting life
breed
increase biomass and replicate
breathe
genus amputation of a surfacing infection
bleed
Leaching to the strain the creators of predation

adrift the wakes in sleep and in doubt
chords of dissonance ring, ringing out
ancient ones

infection setting in
deprived of oxygen