The Kraken

end his bloodline
that teenaged spite

now ghost them all
twenties’ in flight

phantoms still haunt
thirty years on

self sabotage
‘til forties gone

don’t get too close
flee or be burned

thoughts he fed while
his starved heart yearned

dreams of laughter
the scratch of chalk

now echoes on
an empty dock

their ship has sailed
as fifties come

on a calm sea
that raged for one

widowed father
that never was

struck by wisdom
as time oft does

his glassed eyes squint
at last to see

life might live best
vulnerably

---

I wrote this poem in syllabic free verse with couplets.