The Temple -

We found the ivory carving

Stashed among his dripping rags

Pried his clenching grip from the railing

Throwing him overboard

His eyes jarred open

The reanimated corpse swam away

Drifting into madness

The ivory idol guides us

Torn away from our course

Plunging down through abyssal doors

Driven mad

Breaking loose, a mutiny brings fratricide

One by one, the bodies out the double-hatches

Nowhere to go but down

Down to the ocean floor

With the statuette firmly in our grasp

Reluctant, assisted suicide

The aqueous depths his Stygian grave

Now I’m alone

Failing air and failing light

Urge to disembark

Looming in the searchlight

Cyclopean keep

Yawning, beckoning door

I behold the temple

With the fading of the last stricken match

An eerie requiem penetrates the hull

Shining forth from the opening of the temple

A light like altar-flame seduces me to my death