In Which A Childhood Fear Surfaces

It's taking me much courage e'en to look
Upon the photo I've put on this page;
Blame China Mieville for it; his new book
The Kraken, just so happened to engage
Me quickly in a quest again to see
What's haunted me since childhood. Lo! Behold:
Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni
The merest thought makes my blood run so cold,
I'm eight again, in Wyoming, landlocked
But still quite sure this monster lurked below
My bedclothes, clacking beak, thoroughly stocked
With tentacles and after me. I know:
'Twas silly of me, out here, to believe
A giant squid could get me of an eve.

BONUS SONNET: In Which I Muse On A Strange Literary Trope

A city that's a giant railway train
Seems to me a most strange motif to keep
Encountering in fiction, e'en the strain
Called speculative. And there's a small heap
Of books I've lately read that featured such:
The characters must build the way before
Then tear up rails and ties behind. A crutch
For storytelling? I think maybe more
Is going on than that in these great books:
Mieville's Iron Council, Reynold's Gap,
And Christopher Priest's Inverted World looks
To do it, too. Allusion to the trap
Of civilized life is what I most see,
But still most strange this trope appears to me.