The Merfoxiad V: Cerulean Seas of Caprice

The sand shakes and crumbles under my feet
As I draw near with drawn sword and blade between
My teeth, red raw with tired eyes and bleeding lips
Aching and shuddering with muscles drawn tight over hips
Legs like lead weights, heaving and hauling this limp, lithe
Frame slowly towards it’s final destination and the end
Of us all

Born down in the deep, dark brine with bellyful of
Baleful hate, an incisive, calculated, cold killing machine
Swam through cerulean seas of caprice
With icy blood coughing and seeping through it’s
Long dead veins
Surging forth towards Brighton sands
With two paws and razor claws intent on bringing death

And he says I’m all we have left
What a state of affairs when there is no
Fair fight to be had
I know I won’t walk away from this
The beast snarls and stares
As I approach, dare to approach
Dare to dream, to believe that
Of all the things in this world

This skinny little girl with a huge heavy sword
Could end this, could stop the dreams
The cold wet nights where I awake with a scream
Every second is eternity now
Every inch a mile
This fragile heart pumping louder than a bomb blast
Each tremulous beat thudding against thin sternum
Cracking and shaking my skeleton
The bone beneath thin flesh
Razor sharp, wrapped in knotted sinew strings

Dark sky light far too bright
Blinded and burning retinas and irises
Aching from the beauty of incandescent sun
Masked behind clouds and storm and squall
But grinding into these weary eyes

Ten metres more
It skulks by the shore
Sharp narrow eyes watching me
Waiting, salivating, dripping from the muzzle
The broadsword tightly clenched in firm, chapped hands
I charge, headfirst, headstrong and wholly resolute
Seeking the end, an end of all of this
An end of dreams that wake me at night
An end to visions that haunt my days
An end to pain, to fear, to all that I held dear
To anything I ever loved
Though for the life of me
I can’t remember what in my life ever meant as much
To me as my own sweet life

The blade connects with thick flesh, the white of the throat
The claws in my chest
Ribs crunch and crack
The hottest, sweetest thing I’ve ever felt
And the last
With every ounce of strength, every drop of blood
Every pound of muscle, every straining sinew
With the force of will and something else, something darker
Deeper, from within the core of myself
I thrust, push, force the great broadsword up
Through the neck
Gouging the throat
As razors cut and saw through my gut
Coughing up blood over white cotton
But still coughing, still standing, still breathing
Eye to eye with the beast from beneath

I never saved anything for the journey back
I always knew that none of this
Limp, frail form was ever built to last
Tied far too tight for far too long
Taut skin over gleaming sharp bones
A precise, surgical living weapon
Only the blood can pay for the blood
Only my life can take away his

As my sword hews through the jaw
Hacking deep into the brain of the beast
I hear nothing
Dead silence and pure
Crystalline, ice white light

I free one hand from the hilt
And grab tight the beast’s bloodied red ear
With one final ragged breath
I hold the jaws to my bared teeth and whisper
Screaming as loud as I ever could;

The sea god will see gods are destined to their deaths

The Merfoxiad III: Tails of Vulpine Vicissitude

The date, a day
The day of her birth
How and why and how did he know
What did it mean and what had she just seen
Lurking, skulking, peering between tomes
She caught his gaze and he sidled out

The girls interest piqued, forehead burning
Lips loose and inquiring, demanding
Answers for riddles and lockets
Seraca’s hazy hazel eyes burnt right through their sockets

The old man sat down and sighed deep
You’re not the first one with this secret to keep
What you see, I have seen
A long time ago, when these bones didn’t ache
And this mind was as sharp as the tips of his claws
I banished the dreams and the scenes when I banished the beast
Five decades ago

Calamity, Charybdis, Leviathan, Kraken,
Cataclysm, Scourge
By many names he’s known, by people
Long dead, who sat atop long crumbled thrones
A weapon, the trident of Poseidon has lived long and ended many
In Rome, Constantinople, the fall of Tripoli, he fought Gilgamesh
He was there, watching, waiting, annihilating
The legend of vulpine destruction, mutilated flesh and form

With a single purpose and drive to kill
Sent forth by a god forgotten, with a grudge
and a vengeance like none we have known
Where is atlantis now, they couldn’t survive the furry death
Yet I did

A child, like you, a long time ago
Though mere seconds in a tale of tails
That spans millennia
Every night I slept in sweat and blood
Waking, screaming since I was young

Until my twentieth year
Whats that you say,
I struggle to hear
Ah yes, the dreams became waking
Walking nightmares, all day
Visions, warnings, that foretold
That the things I had seen were real
If I just read the signs
They showed me the way

Chosen to stop the beast from beneath
A skinny boy with a flop of blonde hair
To stand against the end of an era
The extinction of a race
One day, awake and asleep
Walking in dreams, I came to by the seaside with a sword in my hand
The beach deserted, the clouds darkened, day dimmed to dull light
It crawled, it came, it screamed, screeched from the sea
The beginning and the end
Perfect form of furs and clawed paws, surged through the brine
Intent on the end of all life

The sword struck deep and dug in right through it’s neck
The flesh, the blood
The scream from beyond, it split, it shrieked
The earth shuddered, cracked, trembled beneath us
An incandescent light pierced my eyes
The beast was gone, the great Merfox
And so was the sword
I came to with a locket round my neck

I kept it close, held it tight all these years
Never heard again, dreamt again of the beast
Those dark dreams
Until one night I awoke drenched in blood and sweat
And yet, I expected it
My fingers gripped round the locket
What else happened, Dear, on the night of
The twenty third of March, nineteen eighty six

Seraca ran her fingers through her fine curls
I was born, she whispered

So, they created it
Recreated it, mutilated it
Brought it back from death to bring death
Playing god with the spawn of a god
It returns and it is all their fault
The cult of the fox have reopened Pandora’s box

I was born, she whispered
Then, firmly, I will win
Let’s reach the beach before it’s breach

The Merfoxiad Prelude: Foreword, Four Words, Creator

Mutilation, the blood rushing from every vein
They’re toying with nature
Twisting, tweaking, abominating
Water fills its lungs as it chokes into life
A flash of soaked fur and sharp claws

This should never be, but that never stopped them before
And we can only run when it reaches shore
Mangled, twisted, rotten fur, spliced and convulsing
The scales, the gills, wrapped around and diffusing the mammalian blood

The birth, the creation, of a species intent on destruction
Pushed the limits of genetics and death is your reward
Unholy macabre and solely devastating
This laboratory will become our tomb
An underwater killing field, the glass will break
The beast is loose and escape is merely formality preceding our demise
Death from above, the sides, below the surface of this aquatic hell

It was mathematically Impossible they said
This brings me no comfort now
Unrelenting, it stalks the deep, this harpoon
Is my only friend in the world
It breaches

Death in the beginning, predicted, elected, sorted and
Settled, she is all that can stop him now
I lead the beast to the deep
Thank god the sea god can
Hold it at bay as it bays
Barks and calls

Science and omniscience
Neither can save or prevent
Plug, stall the prophecy
But her
One girl
Seraca

The Merfoxiad II: Delicate, Desiccated Descrator

A sea god
Will be god
Once we have buried
All the rest

Nurse, did you see a nurse in here?
No miss, I’m the first to see you today
How are you feeling
That’s good, we think you’re fine and
Good to go

Go where, she asked but no answer returned
Fine, how fine is fine when you have dreams like these
See things like this
Hear words like those

The young girl rose up on her elbows and slumped against the
Backboard, bored and laying back, she stared at the ceiling
Patterns swirled, shimmered, slowly she saw scales and fur
The doctor’s head around the door; we’ll get you ready to go in an hour

I’m fine
But what if I’m not
They’re only dreams
But what if they’re not
But what if they’re not
Seraca grabbed her clothes from the side,
Threw off her gown and hurried, scurried, charged out

Through the doors, into the cold garden
She sat beside a smoker on a bench
The old man coughed and smiled
Enjoy the fresh air while you’re young sweetie

Seraca smiled softly and pulled her hoodie over her head
You’re only young once and all your troubles only grow with age
He persisted, she resisted, held, bit, clamped down on her tongue
Me, I got cancer, ain’t that a kicker
So I started smoking out of the worry and the stress
Heck, I know it kills me but sometimes a man needs something
A little release, an outlet, something to ease the days

You look worried, concerned, upset he said
Try to relax, your exams won’t be all that bad
Smiling politely she arose and left the bench
Hey sweetie, you remind me of my daughter
Take this; he threw a necklace her way
I don’t need it, think of it as luck
Seraca bowed and the blood ran to her head

Staggering sauntering, with more haste and less speed
Than she would’ve liked had she been well
No shrink, no doctor can know or help
The library, warm, calm and quiet with resources
Breathe in the books and cuddle up in a corner

A reference, for reference, her deference to Japanese
Folklore had Seraca poring over texts once again
Kitsune, come to me, raise your sword
Protectors, guardians and far from sea beasts

The vision, a leviathian of red fur and shimmering scales
Bore little to do with the Japanese tales
Frustrated, humiliated, indebted and immolated
The young girl threw the lore to one side, laid back in the chair

Hazily, grimly, dimly, darkly it flickered, fluttered
Flashed before her eyes, the necklace, the pendant
Then nothing. Nothing more.

She awoke again, wet sweat to the neck and gasping for breath
A couple walked past, glanced in concern, then staggered along, hand in hand
Apathy, not antipathy, though it mattered not to Seraca
An ounce, a grain, a drip, drop of their interest could change nothing

The girl reached for her neck, her fingertips traced down the chain to the amulet
Blindly worn and gently caressed, her eyes took it in truly for the very first time
An engraving, a carving, a marking on bronze
Was it a jaw, a claw or just a mind playing tricks

And a number, beneath the jaws and claws
A human number, or just a mind playing tricks
23-03-1986

The Merfoxiad I: Birth in the Brine

Oh, sweet Marianas
Cradle of the deep
The challenge is deep
Dark, down within your abyss
The void stutters and trembles

Marriage in the dark
Marry the death to despair to the prophecy
And how naive are we
To think a god only lives when he is held to be true

Oh sweet Poseidon, biding your time til
The trident, the bident, the mighty fork
Can crawl out from this trench and
Take canine form

As the tale of the tail tells
On one fateful night
Numbered June 14th 2008
But who could tell in the gloom
None to witness, none to watch

Poseidon create, through waves and plates
A great eruption, an incinerating flame
Four thousand feet below good
Old
Terra
Firma

A flash of red, a shimmer of scales
Perfect form, intelligently designed
And evolved beyond
All comprehension of function and form

The fox floats through the foam
Cackling, crackling, snarling
The beast
Roars and reaches out a paw
To his lord

The god of the sea
Pets and strokes the beast
Checks the jaws, the paws
The claws before its release

And hell in sea and trench will take vulpine form
Twisted far beyond our sight
And set forth again to rule the earth

Those words, a mantra
Repeated themselves and pounded into
Her aching brain
Seraca awoke, a cold sweat
Coating her neck

Lie down, lay back
On your back
The ceiling, cream emulsion with
Those little patterns

Perhaps that swirl is a lion
That twist, a horse
Is that there a cloud
A fish, a fox a sword

And again we’re back to it
This recurring dream
The girl glances at him
Please doctor, what does it mean

Anxiety, he says, pressure at school
She laughs and sighs,
Rolls on her side;
It’s followed me for years
A babe, a child, a teen and now

Seraca steps, glides, floats outside
A waif, a sylph, petite yet hard
Rugged, enduring, a grace and elegance
Of a fencer not a dancer

She steps, stops, stock still
It hits, a splash of blue
She falls to her knees
A crowd rushes to lift
The young girl
Yet all she sees is a cerulean sea
A bolt of red, flash of scales and fur
A birth in the brine, a roar and howl
A call from beyond

The muscle pounds, pauses, stops
Flutters, flickers
The cold steel against her chest
Paddles bring her choking back to life

Young, far too young to fall so soon
Fate has other plans for Seraca

And every night she sleeps
She dreams of scales and fur

The Merfoxiad IV: Scales and Fur

Carving a path through the waves
The power of a thousand unholy days
The tale of a tail and claws
They will all fall before scales and fur

A hero, I am no hero but I’ve never been one to fall before I’m through
I rise up to any challenge and I always stand my ground

Oh now, I see the prophecy has been fulfilled
It’s coming signals the end of days
Seraca, please heed my call and find me with my back against the

Wall, it’s coming, it’s pulsing, it’s racing through the seas,
Beset by caprice and filled with lascivious haemophiliac rage

And now, I hear it. A call, a primal call from beyond this human plane
A rise to power need not be so dramatic, a call to arms can be as mediocre
As necessity, in a world without any heroes, in a land without any hope
Perhaps it’s right that someone as ordinary as me
Shall be the one who sets us free,
So now I ride, I drive, I charge through the land, to meet the demon hand to hand
To face the one they call the greatest foe, the omega and the end

Oh Seraca, you’ll meet those scales and fur with glory in your hand
And a knife between your teeth
As that beast, that whore, that agent of killing and pain
Dares to step forth upon dry land
It comes, it crawls chest first, onto the beach
The breach, it’s born, its blood will reach
Forth, now into the sand as you attack with sword
In your hand, oh, it comes, it crawls into the night

Ive never been the one to fall, i’ve never been one to shirk a challenge
I stop my car, and park right by the cliff and take the hunting knife from out of the sheath
I march, I lurch, I shudder towards the beach, my heart heavy and thudding like

The beat of a drum
Drum, drum, the crash of a gun
The sound, it rips through my ears
My skin, feels tight as though
My veins fit to burst right through
And blood will cover my skin
In a thick layer of red
A warpaint, a uniform
Allied with the dead
The demon, the beast is sat in the sand
Licking its paws, cleaning its hands
It’s cold, red eyes are fixed on the girl
The challenger with baggy shirt and curls

A battle, to decide and determine the future of the earth
The sand beneath their feet will tremble as the night closes in
Vivacious and headstrong the girl will face the machine
A perfect design of scales and fur, set forth to kill
Will it ever face defeat, demise, death by the sword
It has lived and perhaps the ending would fit as
The old saying goes, but sayings are sayings and nobody knows
What destiny and fate have shaped, in their wicked way
Concocted and planned, the world, to a man
Must know, must care, but it matters not
As on the beach, she is
All
We
Have
Left