From Montauk’s steep cliffs and white shores

comes a tale of quantum depravity

where Einstein in his time explored

the separation of atoms from gravity.

From Tesla's old Wardenclyffe Tower

to force-fields electromagnetic,

meant to cloak U.S. ships with the power

of energy - light and kinetic.

Take my hand then, together we'll walk

along Paumanok's white sandy beaches

to the edge of the world at Montauk

where the Arrow of Time cannot reach us.

This horizon could well be eventful,

and the temperature absolute zero,

for space-time's a bit temperamental

at the lonely locale of Camp Hero.

World War II, it's nineteen forty-three,

and the Nazis are researching stealth.

Then Camp Hero is built by the sea,

amid rumors of illicit wealth.

"Philadelphia", they name this project,

this science, unearthly and eldritch,

bending light around visible objects:

in this case, the USS Eldridge.

The goal: radar invisibility

and it actually works... but not quite.

For the Eldridge defies probability,

and disappears out of plain sight.

A tense forty minutes then pass

before a call from Virginia's port--

its navy agog and aghast--

gives its startled official report:

"The Eldridge is here at our base,

we're not sure we can reach her by rowing,

we don't know how she was misplaced,

and we don't understand why she's glowing."

For there the ship floats in the distance

cloaked in a shining fog-shroud,

then once more winks out of existence,

taking with her the glowing green cloud.

At her berth she again reappears

her structure all twisted and wrecked.

What the sailors find as they draw near,

not a logical mind could expect.

To the crushed, crippled boat they go sailing,

and they find at end of their trip

the crew raving, and dying, and wailing...

and some fused to the hull of the ship.

It doesn't end there, our dark story

of secretive government crime,

of a deep underground laboratory,

of wormholes through both space and time,

of human experimentation,

of mind-control, dark matter, horror,

of monsters of myth, of mutation -

and intrigue for intrepid explorers.

You can still see the Eldridge, they tell me,

she still sails the fourth dimension,

(she appeared in nineteen eighty-three,

by the lighthouse, in green-glow suspension.)

So goes the legend of Montauk,

you won't find it in any brochure.

But come now, take my hand and we'll walk

along Montauk's steep cliffs and white shores.

-----

I had SO MUCH help from Metaphorest on this; she was like a breath of fresh air for this poem. Now, I feel like it needs a narrator. I'd do it--with my East Island accent and all--but my mic is terrible (read: I don't have one, I just talk into the camera and rip the sound out,) and also, I don't like the way my voice sounds.

I have a ton of videos for this and I'm going to make a video record eventually, once I've got good narration. I'm so excited because time travel is really my thing, and any collab that honors Looper is a friend of mine!  ^_^ 

(ETA: It'd be cool if there were two voices, actually. One young, starting at "World War II", and one old, withered, and worn, for the beginning and end. (Old voice again at "You can still see the Eldridge..." This is asking a lot, I know. ^_^;; I just think it would be so neat.)