Underneath the Waves

If you haven’t figured it out by now, two of my interests are cosmic horror and Michigan history. Today’s poem, a haribun (basically poetic prose followed by a haiku), incorporates both.

For the record, the Great Lakes have had a LOT of shipwrecks. Here’s another poem I wrote about one of them. I was going to link another one about a part of Lake Superior’s shoreline called “Shipwreck Coast,” but it turns out I haven’t shared it here yet.

And as a final thought, the cover photo might not be much to look at, but it’s of Whitefish Bay in Lake Superior. Behind me in the photograph is the lighthouse that infamously went dark the night the Edmund Fitzgerald sank in 1975.

Underneath the Waves

Originally written November 12, 2021

They always warn about the monsters in the waters off the coast of haunted Massachussets. They say something ancient sleeps beneath the Pacific in its cold, dark city, its snores gently rocking the waters that escalate into waves. It thrashes in its dreams and its tsunamis devour villages in one fell sweep. But rarely do they warn you of the monsters locked away by Gitche Manitou—the great beasts that still sometimes awaken and swallow ships and spit out their ribs on the shores.

Underneath the waves
Of Great Lake Superior
Something eldritch stirs.