---

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