Aftermath… (High Octain)

From massive quake, tsunami broke--

a shift in the tectonic plate

that caused the Earth to vacillate.

Like sleeping dragon that awoke,

and in his haste, the coast erased

and wiped-out all the local folk

we watched the sea obliterate;

from massive quake, tsunami broke.

From massive quake, tsunami broke…

survivors cling to news and wait,

as mud and oil coagulate.

And like some cruel and heartless joke--

more are displaced by nuclear waste

mixed with debris and rising smoke.

Again we listen for their fate:

“From massive quake, tsunami broke…”
©Copyright Ginny Brannan April 2011

High Octain is simply a double Octain, but as one poem – the refrains are the same (though varying them to some degree is perfectly acceptable), a- and b- rhymes are the same, and the c/c line with the internal rhyme can optionally be rhymed in the second instance (as here). There is no restriction on the level of repetition, but in most cases the stipulated refrain A is enough; this may even feel too repetitive and need varying somewhat particularly in the High Octain, where it appears four times. *Octain format created by Luke Prater.