"Past the village, under sea ice,
haunting the shoreline since days came from nothingness.
Watching you with unblinking eyes,
waiting for you to defy."

The boy observes him before the fire
Ancient tribesman speaking in somber tongue
Fascinated, leaves in the night
Glacial wind bites at his eyes

Words of elders ring in his mind
"Hair of a maiden, skin of a basilisk.
Stealing children too brash to comply,
sentencing them to the deep."

"I'll come to you,"
The child calls to ocean depths from the snow
He listens for the humming sound
Wishes for the creature to appear

Splash of water, unrecognizable noise
Vision hazy, still his feet move ahead
Flash of emerald, now a presence inauspicious
Cranes to see, stability compromised

Into the blackness of Antarctic sea
Tidal momentum; submerged in her monarchy
From waves, he calls to vacant land
Sinks to the bottom

Upon realization of his breach,they retrace his tracks
A form floating near the polar fronds
Familial collapse

The tribesman lauds the child
and curses the monster living in the waves,
old as the sun

Rising whale with emerald tail
Merely adrift, more beast than myth