The Atoll

Albin (cont.)
Raised ocean levels inch high round the reefs
I want to renegotiate treaty terms
An inch above the low tide marks which ring
The coral island move with modern times
Hector
Well talk when you complete the punishment
Till youve clocked seven thousand hours hard slog
Community based service treadmill trapped
Your sentence served my ears are deaf to pleas
Albin
I was not caught in flagrante delicto
Hector
The felony of vandalism was judged
Concurrent evidence of circumstance
You smashed glass chamber number three to bits
Yourself thrust on the young unfinished clone
Both wholly drenched in green amniotic fluids

The Atoll

Hector (cont.)
How far with opportunity weve come
Albin
Sweet Angela my small organic patch
Has only been blessed by your presence once
Angela
Your easy going free range sea gull coop stinks
My eyes cant bear the sight of chick wings clipped
This time no thanks to your foul boiled chewing gum
My inner being mysteriously recoils
Albin
Youre such a fuss with foodstuffs Angela
Angela
In truth I only eat to be polite
Well I must leave you now for beauty sleep
Recharge of batteries depleted here
Albin
Wizard Hector as global warming has

The Atoll

Hector
Hes taking punishment all you need know
We need such vulgar puffed up entities
To test the bounds of our humanity
Define like framework neatly who we are
Albin
The gymnasium is tortuous punishment
When digging holes then filling them again
Is real mens work my carbon footprint small
Hector
Our last collaboration garden cove
Of hardy plants still thrives I trust Albin
Albin
Green is the only colour natural
To wild tomatoes carrots beans and peas
Hector
Tornadoes mainland sowed the stratosphere
Dropped our wild beachcombing eight treasured seeds

The Atoll

Plasma (cont.)
Round me if I woke countless moons ago
The world and moon were caught in civil war
Hector
I guessed you some spark off the old starman
Plasma
Stir crazy over aeons trapped I cant whinge
But wizard I do many chores as thanks
For your hard reality and waking dream
Hector
Go reconnoitre castaways again
How is our feral pal doing treading mill?
Angela
I dont like him much he gives idiot looks
Hector
You never liked his bulbous ugly looks
And now we see hes much more ugly due
To bodybuilding protein shakes and sweat
Angela
Theres something youre not telling me wizard

The Atoll

Plasma (cont.)
Alls ship shape sorted fresh come next high tide
Hector
Plasma youve grown indispensable here
And yet a day comes soon that we shall part
I feel it bode in my bones truthfully
Remember how I heard your moans and groans
From within that soft tufa slab and chipped
You loose and took care not to damage you
As if a sculptor safety margin inch
Plasma
I was from long incarceration freed
By you and this inch thick glass suits me flexed
The perfect weave of luck and legacy
Volcanic lava flowed abruptly hot

The Atoll

Hector (cont.)
My hearty will squirm out of sailors knots
Three days adrift inside the treacherous
Sargasso seas of  Bermuda triangle
Enough hard tack and rum to last three days
Angela
Its such a shame your cousins covetous
A proud megalomaniac envy rid
I better understand your strong mood swings
Scene 3
Plasma
The narco sub has beached a sorry wreck
Survivors now swim diversely ashore
I brought a straggler bubbling up the hatch
Of its small conning tower through waves to air
I healed the superstructure watertight
And fixed electro mechanical faults

The Atoll

Hector (cont.)
Adulterated to harmless dust
Or frozen isolated it might be
Ground off by teams of metal nanobots
But sadly money was his vital vice
He relegated labs to cut his costs
Short term and so soon fell behind his peers
In breakthroughs curative he damned us cranks
And touted cheap generic pills for all
Reluctant I agreed to meet with him
On downtown docks that we serve greater good
The ambush hit beneath container cranes
Without so much as sight of him and gagged
And bound and gunny sacking bagged I was
Shipped out to Carribean wild sea cast on
A decommissioned rudderless tug boat
Id heard my cousin cackle loud aye aye

The Atoll

Scene 2
Hector
Its nought my doing know this bio robot dear
Angela our mortal foe are aboard
The narco sub yet I have not destroyed
Them using my considerable powers
Gaze once more on our magic crystal bouy
Angela
They battle valiantly in your swim zone
And so youre proven negligent thus far
Hector
Whats self inflicted is their business
And not ours Id be no samaritan
In Urep we were friendly rivals once
And we believed the many problems faced
By the world quite surmountable sad things
And we supported one anothers work
A cancer might be dealt to many ways

The Atoll

Angela chants
Those hoods at sea in underworld they hark
To when their fish cold boss would feed on fear
Of late hes lost his dire predictive spark
Hes older dodders deep to death hes dear
Though metres long old tetchy tiger shark
Is sucked down by remora who cant bear
Their mentor more reduced an easier mark
And Neptune blunt them scuba divers spear
White ventrals grey blue dorsals too themselves
Now cobia pals of tiger shark deflate
With head butts their redundant hunting mate
A pilot fish now plugs gills closure delves
Sinking blindside by side yet well suited
Hes rock bottom bound the mood is muted

The Atoll

Silvio (cont.)
Then he and I will exit ramming her
Entirely from the conning tower awash
With his small trunk of balsa wood
Assuredly bouyant nine tenths stale hot air
Youll scramble up the steel rungs one by one
That is last one out is a rotten egg
Giacomo
You were coerced into taking hostages
By former paramilitary troops
Collateral for ransom swamped for bucks
You are a naive sad patsy don Silvio
Silvio
On deep reflection I do think as much
Till we meet once more adios amigos

The Atoll

Silvio (cont.)
Not one soul would miss any one of us
Giacomo
Ive swung the periscope full circle thrice
And factored out what look to be oil smears
A picture postcard is all I can see
Were at sea level stranded on some sort
Of coral island wrapped round its lagoon
Paolo
The splintered crates and fractured flasks slide on
Now washing from the hold our way in pools
We must abandon quick the narco sub
Silvio
Move pronto gracias down the nose cone end
First Giacomo undoes the batoned hatch
And lets the lady Gloria squeeze on past

The Atoll

Silvio (cont.)
The current crisis is hot stinking air
Giacomo
Dear governor you owe us some respect
Full amnesties should we escape alive
We couldve simply executed you
At safe arms length with switch blades else hemp noose
Miguel
Did you not see me nodding powerful words
From Gloria our state counsel? special pleas
By high placed bureaucrats to presidents
Would be unconstitutional at best
Eduardo
As mayor I wholly back the governor
My eyes and ears arent bought so easily
Silvio
Then your ear dirt cheap is a cauliflower
Though kick back spared puffed by steel blue knock back

The Atoll

Giacomo
A juvenile delinquent? thats not me
The government made me senorita
I still collect remand tithes here and there
As liaison officer no tithe no trial
Silvio
This is your final pistol whip enjoy
Giacomo
What it boils down to is youre ballast weight
Silvio
Climb up the conning tower and check the hatch
Senora know that ladies flush out first
Paolo
What Id give for any small high rise flat
Downtown with timeshare parking thrown in free
Miguel
The coral reef will be so slippery
Silvio
Youre thinking far too far ahead know all

The Atoll

Scene 1

Silvio
Reverse propellers were now scratching cross
A coral reef reverse grease monkey hard
Wait till I get my hands on the crook who
Sold me this narco sub seagoing what crap
Dive depth five metres such piss Ive got all
His alias names on this crinkled scrap
The laws of short term karma slam on him
Giacomo
That horrible shrill creaking noise pains me
Have we confused magnetic north again
With true north? weve leant on luck far too much
Computing latitude by longitude
By altitude with compass square and pen
Theyre no match versus under ocean quake

The Atoll

Silvio
Si Ive rubbed padded shoulders with the best
Bribe takers one could plant on payroll list
Though high society will not be name dropped
You yourself are that noble geriatric
A selfish spinster Ive admired in chaos
For counselling at least one civil war
And brokering fat fees yours all the same
Gloria
Backhanded is the compliment but facts
Are facts you wont escape the law so quick
Youre still young relatively Giacomo
Rehabilitation awaits your soul
The penitentiary would do you good
But Silvio can expect the supermax

The Atoll

Silvio
Amigo old or no he will be crushed
The fingerprints removed by surgery
In operating theatres situated
Right side of town arent slippery enough
Pals will avenge this misadventure fast
Giacomo
Silvio I must untie the gags and cords
Which bind our hostages to ransom notes
Silvio
Release the human ballast Giacomo
Giacomo
Theyre nodding furiously to proof of life
I think theyll get the drift of undertow
Silvio
The self absorbed senora Gloria first
Gloria
Do you know who this is youre dealing with?

The Atoll

Silvio
Surrender rudder wheel man periscope
Dumbkopf gringo wouldnt be read first time
A narco sub went missing all souls lost
In the Bermuda triangle just because
A map was held the wrong way round and wet
Giacomo
The shonky diesel motors spluttering
It smacks of Pedros cheapskate handiwork
Silvio
I know his signature we fenced bank safes
And salsa bar strongboxes when rash youths
Si even then he cribbed a metal gauge
By vernier pocketing a gram or two
Dino
Bog is showing through fresh painted fibreglass

The Atoll

Scene 1

Silvio
Reverse propellors were now scratching cross
A coral reef reverse grease monkey hard
Wait till I get my hands on the crook who
Sold me this narco sub seagoing what crap
Dive depth five metres such piss Ive got all
His alias names on this crinkled scrap
The laws of short term karma slam on him
Giacomo
That horrible shrill creaking noise pains me
Have we confused magnetic north again
With true north? weve leant on luck far too much
Computing latitude by longitude
By altitude with compass square and pen
Theyre no match versus under ocean quake

The Atoll

Prologue chant

Angela
Perhaps I ought to strike out on my own
As my poor wizard surely knows it all
Or somehow feels obliged to lilt high flown
In talking large he squashes me down small
Although hes mostly lost in thoughts unknown
The zero population growth dire pall
Allows him luxury of his self clone
Myself infertile I could boldly bawl
In eerie peace beneath surf waves that pound
Lie treasure troves all types of wrecks
This astrolabe that traverse board I found
Embossed with detritus in punctured decks
The wizard minds a museum hails the hoard
Of artefacts that tax payers cant afford

characters

The Atoll

by KQJ

Characters
Miguel - governor of a state
Felix - son of the governor
Hector - disappeared wizard
Salvatore - young man about town
Gianni - young man about town
Dino - scab narco sub engineer
Silvio - boss of a coke cartel
Giacomo - captain in a coke cartel
Paolo - socialite heir
Eduardo - mayor of a borough
Gloria - centeganarian counsel to mayor
Angela - prototype bio-robot
Plasma - a scrap of starman
Europa and friends - mermaid and merman robots from
the icy moons of Saturn and Jupiter
Albin - vitiligo afflicted diminished twins

An interactive movie comedy in 220 emails set in the Bermuda triangle