Godzilla’s Curse

As wicked dew as e’er my mother brushed
With raven’s feather from unwholesome fen
Drop on you both! A southwest blow on ye
And blister you all o’er!
– Caliban to Prospero & Miranda, The Tempest (Act 1, Scene 2)

What soul wakes me from my ancient slumber?
On the ocean floor, I dreamed for ages,
secure in the dark, disencumbered
from the weight of sentience; now enraged.
Your era is an illness, I can see—
the waters sick, fish floating, the air foul,
stench and disease—and you dare disturb me?
Leviathan, I rise, with roaring howl
to rain fury on the earth and mankind.
May you drown in waves of terrible force,
from powerful hydrogen blasts go blind,
and through it all, I will show no remorse:
aaaaaaI will annihilate and rout and kill,
aaaaaafor in your error, you gave me free will.

***

Lauren Tivey is the author of four chapbooks, most recently Moroccan Holiday, winner of The Poetry Box Chapbook Prize 2019; The Breakdown Atlas & Other Poems; Her Blood Runs Through Me; and Dance of the Fire Horse. Tivey is a Pushcart Prize nominee; her work has appeared in Connotation Press, The Coachella Review, and Jersey Devil Press, among dozens of other publications. She teaches English and Creative Writing at Flagler College in St. Augustine, Florida.