Ah, Dante...

A play off Dante's inferno. I've been thinking of basing a story off of it. That man was brilliant.

A circle for those who simply lived
-but did know.
There, suffering exists
bleak, gray clouds on the break of dawn,
shade for the shining ones.

Passion fired the blood of the next,
and condemned the dancing forms
to leave them swaying in the wind
as it tears their forms combined.
Love… that was their end.

The hungry come next,
distended in their wallowing,
but never unburdened in suffering.
At the bray of the hound,
they are flayed to the bone-
and continue to hunger for more.

Greed fills the expanse of the forth,
for hands are opened to spend expense.
Cinder block, wooden stands,
they are pushed by bloodied hands
over and over again.

Anger…
That is the cursed, blessed tone of the fith.
The wrathful grasp the air and tear,
the sullen waste on the stomach of the styx.
Drowning, they do not seek escape,
instead they laugh in shame.

Now- what does it mean to be a heretic?
What is the difference between those
who gathered in the first, and now fry
deep within the tombs of flame.
Their screams rip, shatter, tear-
and leave behind questions of faith.

Ah- sweet violence,
how great is thou accompaniment.
Murder, suicide, God-riddled justice,
punished by boiling blood and deadness.
By now, one could wonder, is there way out-
no way up?

The last two circles are the deepest,
Frauders lay in waste, shredded by their choices.
To each their own individual punishment.
Choice has nothing to do with it,
existence, in it’s own way, is bereavement.

Ice clouds the final circle,
beat into hell by Fier’s wings.
Betrayers are incased in the cold, final grave
and when chilled to the bone,
are fit to fill the great demon’s mouth.

All of this…
This is what awaits us in hell.

Reviews

[Crow]

Dante is one of my favorites, but I admit that I have not read his works in so long he had slipped into the annals of my mind. I love how you capture the imagery with your pallette of verbal artistry, you do him honor. I think this would make an excellent basis for a modern story.

Well penned.