Ever since I got here I always knew that Americans were puritanical at heart, wishing Hell on everyone, claiming Hells influence on everything. So I took upon my self to go to Hell and see what was really there, for the education and benefit of all.
The journey largely mirrors another taken seven hundred years before.
Br Grim
Because of the size of the poem it has to be split in three, (this is part III of III) so 3 diaries across 3 days, but the entire poem can be seen at Dante's Inferno Revisited and at the Grim & Grimy blogspot
Consider it an ABC of sin
For the record, only the last canto will count (XXXIII)
XXII
Silent, alone, we on the lam,
With demons gone we turned and ran!
But never rest this demon seed
Until my blood was body freed!
Because of me they had been mocked,
These monsters who behind us stalked!
So called to Virgil in the lead
And caution for us then I plead.
'These fallen we have left behind
Will never rest until they find
Their fangs on us, our bodies tear
As soon as pack of dogs on hare!'
'I know your thought,' to me replied,
As over shoulders demons spied!
'If other bank proves not so steep,
That way we go to freedom keep.'
I look again and closer yet
I see the fallen on us set,
The Male-branch our paths they chase
As forward of the pack we race!
Then came a point guide picked me up
And cradled me like china cup,
So held me close as on he runs,
Then over the embankment plunged
With me tight draped against his cape,
Our movement last, but not too late
As Male-branch they made a grab,
But us they failed right there to nab!
So straight down into ditch we slide,
Like roller coaster nightmare ride!
Then all goes black and next I knew
Upon the bitter ground I'm threw,
I catch myself and look around
So see I next foul prison found,
Then looked I back at Male-branch,
To see them roar, it made me blanch!
But One above had bind these eight,
Within fifth ditch reside their fate,
So hate is all that they can spit
For us below in number six!
Then heard I sound and turned my head
And saw I there a sight of dread,
For sinners walk in solid robes
For sins once sinned, in gold were clothed.
These spirits dressed like belted monks,
Except when move they made a clunk,
So clanking as they onwards go
And mumbled they with voices low.
So every step we two now take
We see in horde a different face,
And each is wracked by righteous pain,
These hypocrites that God disdain!
I asked my master, help me find
A face that I might recognize,
When two of these, they heard my cries,
'Oh stay your steps!' to me replied.
'Who hurries through the darkened air,
How came you to this last despair?'
Then stares both at my beating throat,
Their eyes bulged in their golden coats!
'Oh I am mad, but man alive,
I see the blood within him strive!
Oh Tuscan don't disdain to tell,
How living here you came to Hell?'
So asked I then, 'Please let me know,
What punishment does glitter so?'
The sinner stands before me creaks,
Before he gathered breath to speak.
'Just hypocrites, its sad but true,
In numbers here too great, not few,
For words that weren't what they appear,
For every word, another year,
And I lost count of things I done
To earn the rage of Risen Son,
So down march I in circle sixth,
In Mal-e-Bog with hypocrites!'
And then turned I, saw dreadful sight
Upon that path of lead there lies,
Arch hypocrite who told the Jews
That one was best when Jesus slew.
And others there upon this road
Must bear the weight of golden robed,
With stakes drove in their blood stain wrists,
Upon that tortured path they twist.
With growing tear in my right eye
We struggled on while softly cry,
For all the horrors ever born
That line so far this trail of thorns.
XXIII
My master questioned those enrobed,
A way for us to onward go
Since bridge was lost, like demon said,
But answers shade 'You've been misled,
The span still stands.' We then were told,
Deceived we were by demons bold!
Then Virgil's face becomes all pink
As thoughts of foul deception sink,
That demon fib should not surprise,
Sure wasn't Satan lord of lies.
So moved we on in better mood,
For progress is to spirit food,
And told we were the path to take,
If journey to the next ditch make,
Then after we had walked a while
My master's face returns to smile.
We found ourselves at cliffs broad base,
Prepared or not to scale that face,
And Everest was not so tall
To fill the shoes of that sad wall.
'Your lazy side, now cast aside,
No easy path!' my Guide deride.
'No place to wait! No time to rest,
No halting now, just upward quest!'
This path for those now robed in lead
Could not be made, unless coat shed,
And by the time that Last Day comes
The time too late for Savior shunned.
Though one bank short and one bank long
Where tallest faced the deeper wrongs,
So hauled myself up bloody cliff
Until on breathless ledge I sit.
So pulled up socks and brushed my pride
When from the next ditch heard I cry,
And turn I then to master, asked
That set us down on mercy task!
So peered I into gloom below,
As climbed we down that wall so slow,
Where saw I sinners serpent chased
And then consume by Satan's snakes.
When each soul bit he'd start to burn
Then flaming sinner ashes turns,
In Mal-e-Bog this vision seen,
To think of, drains the blood from me.
Let idle boast no longer hold,
Of bounty blessed in serpent cold!
As Ovid said, the phoenix dies
Before it's born again to fly,
Not once or twice a thousand years,
That these fine things would Earth appear!
But here below in constant flame
I saw these souls consumed in pain,
As black of pit for moment lit
By burning souls in world of shit,
But these much worse than prior flawed,
These sinners made their way by fraud,
And all these souls were writhing bound
As sinners screamed and rolled around.
By cobra sinner bit on neck,
Whose progress then was instant checked,
Then screamed he did, to curdle blood
Then dropped to roll and writhe in mud.
Now burning flames shoots from his eyes,
So burns he up, then fire dies,
Still from the ash that blow away,
The soul return to malady.
And mambas, asps and vipers saw,
With villain clamped in each snakes jaw,
So many souls I saw in ruin
There lighted by the blighted moon.
And then I saw a serpent slay
The stinking corpse of Kenneth Lay,
For in a special place he choked,
Consigned to boa's golden throat.
And there the souls of all those cheat
By name of Christ the human sheep,
Well, down in Mel-e-Bog he roll
With Falwell and Ralph Reed's soul.
And many there with graying hair
But stole their money fair and square,
While others used their sacred trust
Whose promises transformed to dust.
And any other souls who dealt
In misery, so found they Hell,
So God is just, that's just the way
That God does punish sin today.
So saw I sinners number times
A hundred times what's fit for rhyme,
And one there who from alter took,
Who lifted both his fingers up
And gestures gross he skywards post
And tongue to God he rudely shows.
This sinner bold then turned to me,
And told me things unwelcome three.
'Your party lost beneath the black,
While battle lost at final clash,
And bitter winds will shake your leaves,
I tell you this to make you grieve!'
In bitter rage I answered slow
'Our Lord demanded how much gold?
When Peter given special keys,
No charge to walk the path of peace,
And not one penny then changed hands
When Mathias replaced the damned!'
And cursed I then this sinner bold
Whose sin in life was that he rolled
In money took for word of Christ,
Upon the cross for us He died.
XXIV
Again the spirit gestures there,
His fingers poking stinking air,
'Take that, O God!' the sinner cried,
Until his legs by serpent tied.
Right then those snakes were my best friends
As gagged they there who God offends.
In all the realm of lower Hell
I saw no soul as this rebel,
And even he who's bound to sand,
By torture this made seem quite bland.
Then saw I centaur, lost from rank
Of brothers on the bleeding bank,
Who'd lived in rage inside a cave
And thought himself some pennies save.
A hundred times, the heroes club,
Came down until his brains were scrubbed
And he was dead before one tenth
Of blows had put in head a dent.
Across the walls and on the floor,
All splattered with the centaur's gore,
Now Hell had suit this shade most well,
He had been killed? I could not tell.
For hale he was, their was no blood
Upon this centaur, proud who stood,
With dragon twisted at his nape,
His lower body serpent draped!
Its fair to say he looked full well,
That he be damned and just a shell!
The burning drake upon his neck,
His golden body diamond flecked,
Was casting purple flame about
At all that moves, it fire spouts!
With wings up-swept, with dreadful breath,
This monster by the maker sent!
Beneath our ledge, three souls arrived,
And spoke they low, to hear I strive,
So called they out, these kings of fraud,
In Mal-e-Bog their spirits caught.
So listen now, I'll say it once
The tale of how these souls undone,
And never tell these words again,
Or think of it, lest drive insane!
Well, of these thieves, well one was shrieved,
His pain was caused to God appease,
A snake appeared with six short legs,
(About the size of bowling pegs,)
Which moved within a colored blur
While down its back a line of fur
All gold and green, and blue and red,
And as it moves its skin it sheds,
And every time it sheds its hide,
Was twice as big and more besides!
So grew it large, as fast it ran
Till twice the size of shrinking man.
So grabs it thief and in it sank
It's fangs until the sinner sang.
Then strangest thing right then I seen,
A thing once writ you'd not believe,
But saw it say I, say it twice,
So listen well if you be wise.
He sucked him in, this waif of sin,
Then snake grew extra set of pins!
Then moved it like a slinky bend,
As jumps it up and runs off then!
Like lizard under dog day's lash,
From rock to shade in lightning flash.
While second serpent, black as spice,
As black as slits in demon eyes,
Jumps then this asp, like bullet shot
Through face of second sinner caught,
Then lands the serpent, flicks its tail
And turns to shade as watched I pale.
Then serpent stares with Mesmir gaze
That turned the air to burning haze
Between the eyes of snake and man,
As all their features flux and swam.
Transfixed the shade is serpent turned,
Till worm was man and man was worm.
I saw this thing I can't explain,
As snake made man and man made snake,
(I mean that man a snake became!)
As in my head my eyeballs shake!
Now former man walks on all fours,
And turns to friend who was before.
Then chases friend around the bend,
As onwards then our journey tend!
XXV
Be joyous you morons, cry out!
For everywhere in Hell is found,
And everywhere I've gone, indeed,
On journey high or darkest deep,
The greatest of your kind who fell
Now populate this burning Hell!
Here all your Rich and all your proud,
Eternally they lament loud.
And all your Great and all your Strong,
Inferno bound, will suffer long.
One hundred million souls and more
Stared back from the Inferno floor,
And all the stars in Heaven's belt,
And all the words I'd ever spelt,
By this was made to seem too small,
These sinners who had made the fall!
It grieves me now and grieved me then
To see these souls, by God condemn.
And so we crawled on hands and knees
Up jagged spurs that led from deep.
Like fireflies that broke the night,
The field was filled with flames stood bright,
These spirits who did burn below,
In silence without mercy shown.
And then I see a flame that burns
To left and right, in halves it turns,
Resembled it a blazing heart
That had two souls as its main part.
I begged my Master, need I know
Who suffered in the fires glow,
And answered me, directed he
That we attend to flames I see,
Then turns, and warns me not address
Those burning in the flames duress.
So speaks he to the larger flame,
(With Ulysses contained in pain!)
While silent stood I, listened close
To words that I would hear the most.
Then Hero in the joined flame speaks,
And listen I to all his feats,
Of men turned pigs, and distant isles,
Of monsters foul, and kings of guile.
So speaks the spirit in the flame
Of how he found his dying day,
With all the life that he had left,
With faithful sailed into the West.
And listened hard to hear this tale,
Of Ulysses last setting sail,
His wife and child he left behind,
Thought this was just his least of crimes.
'When none alive could bid me stay,
With trusted crew I sailed away
To oceans new, unpeopled lands,
We cross the world though we be damned,
And on my brow a jewel I wore
Contempt in stone on temple bore
So all the powers could take aim
At Ulysses, whom Gods' disdain.'
'With Casablanca on our left
Through whirlpools then the boat past swept,
There Coast of Orange on our right,
With oars a blur, we near took flight.'
'Then sail we past the pillars last
Where Hercules in water cast;
With friends and crew now old and slow,
Beneath the southern Heaven's glow.'
'A vision there of hope I seen,
A mountain rose from out of dream,
And so we reached the End of World,
Our mighty banner there unfurled.'
'But vision turns to nightmare gust
That split our keel, our mast it bust,
Eight times around then ship went down,
So Ulysses at last was drowned.
Then Minos came and wrapped his tail
Now tight around, the number eight.'
Amazed I was, with ringside seat
As tales of Hero made complete,
And heard I things that no man knew,
From horses mouth, each last word true.
As spirit spoke, Old Virgil blushed
And turned to me with features flushed,
So told me how he ended tale
With happiness, to help with sales.
This man who'd tried to cheat the world
In Mal-e-Bog his spirit hurled,
The flame he bore flicked back and forth,
But Ulysses would speak no more.
XXVI
So silent and erect the flame
Had nothing left to us to say,
So left we then, resumed our path
In fear now through this Land of Wrath,
Then hears I sound of kettle steam
With words contained within the scream!
It begged of me the need to know
Of why we walked this Land of Woe,
And asked me news of Shining Hll,
If Fortune blessed its dealings still?
Like sound that came from brazen bull
When fire warmed with maker full,
And loud did wail, now this was just,
Those tortured in the bull were shut
Which bellowed in its masters voice,
Like statue to the art of noise.
So Virgil turns and bids me speak
To sinner caught in fire bleak,
And I, I had my answer set
Said this then to foul spirit met.
'The Shining City on the Hill
Is dimming but is shining still,
And spills her blood in distant wars
To rumor of the Horsemen Four,
And terror grows within its heart
As Liberty in shame departs.'
The future bared, like Nixon said,
From now till last, the day of dread,
From here until the End of Days,
At half past two on Ides of May.
Then ask I soul, 'And who are you?
And what your sin, what did you do?'
Then laughed he did from where he burned,
And head from side to side he turned,
Until he raised his fingers up
And then his chin he shrewdly cupped.
'If words were meant to be returned
To world above from Heaven spurned,
I'd never tell my name in Hell,
These words I keep and so none tell.'
'Since none,' said I, 'If hear I true,
Return above when journey through,
Then trapped I am within this realm
And so your secrets safe to tell!'
So riddled he his name before
His soul in Hell was fire scorched.
'I'll say it once, so listen well
My name, before I came to Hell,
If you've a pad you'd better jot
These words that pass from prison hot!'
'For letters wrote in kind of code
To highlight what a prince was owed;
That promise made in time of strife
Was doomed by Fate to shorter life,
That vengeance was a tyrants claws
Whose stripes defined the breadth of law,
And then at last that life is cheap
When power to the mighty keep.'
'I know your name!' to knave replied
And stared him down with damning eye!
'A hundred souls have died each day
Because of what you had to say,
A million souls and maybe more,
By you and yours!' at him I swore!
Then spat I did in evil face,
But spit burned up without a trace.
He mumbled then about a Pope
Who asked a boon, then threw a rope
To pardon sin not yet commit,
As if this weren't a counterfeit.
And then he spoke of how he'd tied
His ship to shore before he'd died,
This man who thought his robe might save
His soul, redeemed by tonsure shaved.
'Surprised I was in time to learn
That for my council Hell I earned,
For when at last my time had come,
From living long at last succumb,
This demon met me with a book
Of all my sins, the notes he'd took.'
'And what a lot of things he'd wrote
And what it spelled was my lost soul,
False council to my peril gave,
So here I wave in burning grave.'
'When Francis came to meet my soul,
But stood he still as he was told
That God may have him on His list,
'But he's for Hell!' the demon hissed.
'Then held I was in demon claws
Who told me things that gave me pause;
That sin can't be forgive that way,
If action planned for later day.
And Popes were not above the word,
Their souls could fall with rest of herd!
So Minos wound his tail around
Eight times so Mal-e-Bog was found.'
So left we then this ghost lament
Our journey onward dark descent,
With lesson there that path mistake
Would find your soul in flames not fake.
A fitting place for spirit rest,
Enfold within this fires nest
For council give that knew was false,
The price was high, their souls it cost.
XXVII
Can any man with words unbound
Describe in full the horror found
When walking down among those damned
For schism sowed across the land!
No words exist to write this pain
As sinners shield themselves in vain,
And demons slash with bloody blades
At bodies of these souls enslaved!
So each was hacked till comes apart,
With guts exposed, and beating hearts,
Entrails like sacks get dragged behind
To heal on path again you'd find,
Till yet again he crossed the path
Of demons with their blades of wrath.
So suffered those who sowed discord,
Their bodies cleaved by demon swords.
And all the battles ever fought,
Against the wounds right here were naught,
No human battle ever found
Could match the blood of prison round,
As watch I sinners stumble past
While at their bodies demons hacked!
Now gaping holes on every soul,
A bloody trail of torture told,
So saw I men I thought I knew,
In Mal-e-Bog they came unglued!
There Savage for his sinful ways,
With gutsies out, now past me strays,
And there the ghost of Bin Laden
Stands smiling with a gaping grin.
There Marx and Doors, both maimed by swords,
Walk past with hands in armpits stored,
While others forced to kick their heads
Along the bloody path they tread,
And one there's split from stem to stern,
A painful way to lesson learn
As demons rained upon them blows
For sins of hateful schism sown.
So sinners who by devils split,
(And in whose place I'd never sit!)
Stand down below with umbles out,
Look up to us, O those without!
And cursed us then for walking past
These sinners in their prison last.
But Virgil stood, defended me,
To soul who slandered from the deep.
'He is not dead, at least not yet,
Through circles nine his path is set,
And I his guide, at least I tried,
To keep him on the living side.'
'Now all you souls of sin here thrown,
Who suffer for your deeds foul sown,
So pass we by your mournful cries
While travel to where angels fly.
And though I too among the dead,
At least I'm not by demons bled!'
And hearing this, one hundred souls
Looked up to see us onward go,
And many of these souls cried out,
'Remember us!' in pain they'd shout,
As if on earth their whispered names
In Hell secured them lesser pain.
And then I saw one lantern borne,
His severed head at neck was torn,
Yet somehow body stumbled on
Though link to brain was long since gone,
Then lifted up his bloody hand
So words we'd hear from noggin panned!
'Oh you who are still breathing see
The worst of pain!' the spirit screamed.
'Oh you who come to view the dead,
Beware the choice on life you led,
As see you here the price we pay
For lies and schemes, by demons maimed!'
Now all the spirits there look up
Who drank in life from bitter cup,
And faces there before I'd seen
In picture book or silver screen,
Those villains who'd dared change the facts
To move along a ruthless act.
And then I knew, my mind it blew,
Why recognize these souls not few,
In every book there is a crook
If writer to convention stuck.
And all these souls bleed down below,
Their bodies split for schism sown.
So stumbled on in world gone wrong
In disbelief of tortured throng.
So found our way still further down
Towards the demon and the crown.
XXVIII
So many souls, so many cuts
Had made my eye inebriate,
And I did want to stay and weep,
But always onwards Virgil sweeps
And listens to my protests not,
As walked we in this Land of Rot.
The stink of putrid flesh did knock
Me backwards off my well darned socks,
And sight that I saw there below,
That stopped within me life bloods flow,
As down within the final ditch
I see a horde all scratch and itch,
Where scabs flew off like giant scales
That made me think of fishes tails.
So set myself right then to speak
To Liars and Deceitful Thieves,
But Virgil cautions not to trust
Those bathing in their own foul puss.
'My Lord!' said I, as onward tread,
'That here at last, that not be said
When question those in every ring,
Yet, why not here?' I say to him.
'If heed you must the words you hear,
Then let me just make one thing clear,
These lying trash, deceitful swine,
Who suffer for their evil crimes,
There's none to trust, for not one word
Could bank you from these sinners heard!
So what's to say, upon this day,
Just leave them, let us make our way!'
Now some I knew who dwell below,
These liars who did ill wind blow!
And there they were all laced with fleas,
Whose sickness must the Maker please.
And then I saw a boy of wood
And by his ankle cricket stood,
Whose face was chewed by beetles brewed
In Satan's mind, where torture stewed.
When God has said a soul must fall,
With devil left to host the ball.
So many vats were set in sand
Where virus brewed infect the damned,
While giant fans with man skin belts
Would blow the fumes where liars dwelt.
Then sickness then infect the lot,
With Boobles and with Purple Rot,
With Lemon Hives and Eyeball Bloat,
With sores across their bodies coat.
And bits fell of into the muck,
It fair to say this place did suck.
These spirits used like tested rats,
Infected by the stinking vats.
My mind could not absorb this sight
Of sinners in this Land of Blight,
Like contents of the worlds skid row,
In sickness for deceit were thrown,
Here all deceivers ever born
Beneath their scratching nails were torn.
A million miles we'd traveled close
From mountain lost to prison gross,
But never had I dragged my feet
Until my brother spirit meet.
Now tear I wept upon that place
Where Satan kept my former race,
So saw him leave without a glance
Beneath the bridge that prison spans.
So placed I then my hands on ears,
That tortured barb I might not hear.
'You must not linger,' Master tells,
'Upon this bridge that cross those fell.'
'But one I saw,' to him replied,
'Was blood of mine on other side!'
And shamed I was to see him there,
While murderer of his was spared.
Our Brother we did not avenge,
I saw him finger rudely bend.
He looked at me with hate filled gaze
Which listed in where he dealt blame,
But blood would never stain my hand;
Consign me not among the damned!
So Virgil cautions me to pass,
Ignoring ghost of winters past,
'This journey has a way to go,
No dawdle while the moon is low,
But of your kin, just leave him here,
Within tenth ring of Hell's Eighth sphere.'
So moon now traveled under feet,
It walked on antipodean street,
So not one day had passed in gloom
Since entered we the Land of Doom.
So walked we past this lying scum
As made we road to Kingdom Come,
And just one step I had to take
To turn my thoughts from sinners base.
XXIX
When Athamas was drove insane,
His wife was drowned, his children slain,
The lioness he sought to kill
Was in his mind all madness filled.
Or Hecuba when Troy destroyed,
Her mind was tossed in blackest void,
She breaks at once, her brain in pain
By circumstance right then insane,
Then barks she like a rabid dog
Her mind unhinged, her brain unlocked!
Yet none of that compared to this,
That saw I on the streets of Dis!
Two Raging shades, both bloody raw,
Foam streaming from their clashing jaws,
And each attacked and other ate
Till both consumed in act of hate!
So Virgil takes once more my hand
And leads me down among the damned,
But looked I back to see a sight
That after filled my nights with fright.
These evil things with teeth sunk in,
And others here who plied in sin,
And Virgil tells me who they were,
These monsters who did others tear,
Who ran around like hogs gone wild
While eating all those souls defiled!
'Though one impersonate a lord,
On deathbed changed the final word,
The other loved her father well,
Now finds herself reviled in hell.
But come, time past, now we must go,
If ever reach we point most low.'
So went we down and saw a thing
Most wretched, yet the wage of sin.
A spirit sat with lips rolled back,
His skin which stank was rotted black,
While down below his belly bulged
All dropsy'd so he couldn't budge.
His arm on left, which seemed quite true
Except that it was black and blue,
He chewed his fingers for a drink,
While gagged we in the rancid stink.
So questions shade who looked like lute
Or crazy kind of jungle fruit,
'Oh you exempt from punishment,
Why were you to this prison sent?'
Not waiting for an answer back
He rambles on at quite a crack,
Of how it was his soul was lost
For coins cast with three parts dross,
And when the brothers time was due
Then chance he might their heads to chew.
So see I bodies steam behind
This dropsy'd soul in stasis bind,
So ask him who he thought they were,
The fevered souls who silent stared,
There bodies burning with a flu
By custom order devil brewed.
With great disdain he wrote them off
As ones not worth a whooping cough,
'Yer one is just a lying whore,
Against unjustly Joseph swore.
The other just a thieving Greek,
Now sent to Hell for sins to steep.'
At point of which, one starts to move,
As if it had a thing to prove,
So punches other in the gut
For slanders on his person put!
Then argues each, at other cursed,
Who sinned the most, whose thirst was worst.
And stood I, stared at all I heard,
The world went by, I didn't care,
Till master grabs me angrily
And shakes me like a storm tossed tree.
'If you insist on looking more,
Between us it will start a war!'
And shame as great as I recall
I felt at once for standards fall.
Then Virgil like a kindly dad,
At once he makes me passing glad,
So pardon makes for his rough tone,
On seeing how it brought me low.
'Remember now and no remorse,
Such conversation heard is coarse,
To listen to that kind of thing,
Is not, but should be kind of sin.'
So on we go on journey dark
Where down again our path now charts,
So leave we rotten human mound,
Descend at last to final round.
XXX
The very tongue that wounded me,
Which sent this color up my cheeks,
Was then to fix me in a flash,
Like Achilles, with fathers lance.
A sad and then a healing stroke
I felt then as my master spoke.
In silence then I followed him
Who led me on this journey grim,
In less than night and less than day,
On downward path we made our way.
And then I heard a bugle blast,
As over ears with hands I clasped.
Not Roland, at his sad defeat
Could volume of this trumpet meet,
Then in the distance on the rise
I saw ten towers standing high.
So asked I master, 'Where were we
That find we here this city deep?'
So answers he, 'Your eyes tell lies,
Here everything you see don't buy.'
Then Virgil takes my hand again
And then begins to slow explain,
'Don't be alarmed,' my master said,
As stood I with a sense of dread.
'The shapes you spot, your eyes deceive,
Prepare yourself for sight to see,
For there ten giants proudly stand
Around the Pit of Satan fanned!'
Impressed he seemed, he nearly beamed,
But I, myself, was feeling steamed,
Those tales of giants tall he told
I'd heard when I was five years old,
And even then I'd not believe
These stories told to youth deceive.
So creeps we slowly down the slope,
In blindness through the fog we grope
And learn then error of my ways
For I was wrong, I'm glad to say.
Indeed the ledge was ringed about
By Giants, who from belly south
Stood in the pit, with Satan tied
And others who had treason tried.
I thought my heart, in shock, would stop
Before it ticked another tock.
Now stood each titan two miles high,
From toe in pit to glaring eye!
Right then I heard some sounds amaze
As Giant spewed these fractured phrase,
But nothing recognized as speech
From Giant lips to others preach,
This Nimrod told the people build
And now his tongue was nonsense filled!
The next one round was bound in chain
Five times around his body strain,
With arms locked tight behind his back,
(For threat to Mt. Olympus sack!)
From very fright I could have died,
So glad I was that he was tied.
Then thanked I Nature, she who made
Both elephant and mighty whale,
But canceled other Giant stock,
Just ghosts within Creation's rock.
That these huge things had come to be
To mankind, was calamity,
For all the bombs and all the guns
Could stand not to a Giant, one.
That these huge things were made to make
Destruction in Four Horsemen's wake,
As followed they in way of War,
Red Horsemen who had gone before.
Much better they consigned to Hell
If mankind means on staying well.
Then Virgil points along the path,
Where see I then a thing of wrath
That went by name of BFG,
With 'F' stood for Ferocity,
Who stood in pit from navel down
With feet below in Devil's pound.
And tall he stood , that I could see,
His every span immensity.
Surround he was by rotten smell,
Like Snozzcumber Kim-Chi in Hell,
And down below I nearly gagged
As supper left its sorting bag,
I swallowed hard, though feeling ill,
My meal remained in belly still.
So Virgil calls to head in clouds,
In voice that was full passing loud,
But nothing comes from head above,
So Virgil then it's belly shoves,
Until this Titan, down he bends,
No doubt our bones to flour rend.
Then Virgil speaks in Giants ear
And gestures where I stand in fear,
'Oh Lord!' I thought, he sold me down
The River last, in final round.'
So close my eyes, await the end,
In terror kneel I, penance tend;
And in the dark I'm lifted up,
No doubt my brains he means to suck!
But not a bit, I'm just born twit
Whose master on me should not spit,
The Giant lifts, called BFG,
Us both and set us lower free,
Then straightens like a ship's tall mast,
That left us in this prison last.
XXXI
Had I the crude and scrannel lines
To paint this pit to you in rhyme,
Within the ring of prison last,
Beneath my feet all frozen fast.
Oh wretched rather been born sheep
Than lie within this prison keep!
This task I took was not in jest,
That Lord Almighty set my test,
So swear now on my mortal soul
If lie now may my soul down roll!
Full cold it was, like darkness, hate.
Across this shining floor we'd skate
If not for hundred million heads
That occupied the space we'd tread,
If dared I walk between these souls
Of traitors here by Minos thrown!
I stood amazed in frozen grave,
The ring of ice in souls was paved!
A million souls I saw and more
All frozen in this cavern floor!
I looked around and there I saw
Hee-haws, Quislings and Vichy's all!
As looked I round, my intellect,
In shock and awe, my eyes tears shed,
For some that I saw here before
Were still alive on Earth I swore!
And Virgil their my mind he knows,
So tells me then which way things roll.
'All those below,' He says to me,
'Entombed in ice for treachery!
A way to sell they'd surely find,
For profit into prison bind,
Their kith and kin consigned to sword
For money into purses poured,
Like sinners into final ring
Where frozen now in pain they sing.'
'That can't explain,' I then exclaim,
'These souls I know to live in shame!'
But Virgil holds my eye with his
And puts it to me just like this.
'When crimes this base commit on world
The soul immediate is hurled
To traitor's ring, as right and just,
While up on earth their body husk
Possessed by demons, fills this shell
While soul finds torment down in hell.
Then demons goes on earth bound tear,
So recognize you souls froze there.'
A billion souls in frozen place,
By diamond tears their heads encased,
As far could see till lost in mist,
Though froze they here, before they twist.
So used we heads like stepping stones
To pass with ease through Caina zone,
And so he tells me who they were
And what their crimes, as if I cared.
I knew at least that each broke trust,
Whose word was shit, in ice was thrust.
And there indeed was Aldridge Aimes
For crime of playing patriot games,
And there the soul of Benedict
Whom Virgil as he passed gave kick,
And there the souls of all did time
Who rubber stamped their way to crime,
Beyond again, the fourth estate,
Betrayed the ghost of Murrow late,
Again beyond again I saw a host,
Of clergy who betrayed the most
For all the sins commit by church,
Quite covering even the worst.
So moved we on in world gone wrong
As walked we on the frozen throng,
Where even flows of Greenland ice
By this were made to dwarf in size.
We left behind those souls betray
Forsaken will be never saved,
All traitors froze, eternal ice
That held them in the freezing vice,
In frozen round of circle eight
All waiting for uncertain date,
And knew then God was right and just
To see these traitors Caina put.
XXXII
As walked then we on sinners heads
Which cracked beneath our passing tread,
That broke into thousand shards
Which glittered like the heaven's starred,
Or shining diamonds in the sky
That lucid mind might be guide by,
But worry not for come the dawn
They'd full restore to suffer long.
So fast approached a hanging mist
That softly, coldly, cheeks it kissed,
Till blind I was to stumble on
To follow noise of distant song,
Till we emerge and look around
At final ring of prison found.
The floor was glass of blinding white
That caused me blink, so sudden bright,
Yet in this floor beneath my toes
I saw a hundred million souls
That disappeared, through distance lost,
These sinners in this Land of Frost,
Yet every soul beneath the ice,
I saw them move their wicked eyes!
And all of them were traitors there,
Within the frozen floor who stare
Right back at me, as if I knew
The reason why they prison threw
Like sardines packed till end of time,
Just punishment for traitors crime,
For sins called treason, worse none be
That send them here by God's decree.
Yet on that shining floor was laid
A place to dance and music play,
And all sat there were drinking gin
From glasses with an olive in.
Here all were dressed in Sunday best,
And some would dance and some would rest
While demons black, with little trays
Between the laughing tables strayed.
Now this stretched on for miles and miles,
These cocktails and these winning smiles,
And all I knew here, every one,
All dancing hard and having fun.
There Hendrix played as champagne sprayed,
While songs with Janis Joplin made,
And there the soul of Johnny Cash,
Who sat with Strummer from the Clash,
And though one Door was all I see
That soft parade from him to me.
And on one side was set a grill,
That Bourdain rode, with supreme skill,
Where nasty bits and things with grit
Were set upon the flame to sit,
And once the final cooking done
An eye would buy you serving one.
While Hunt sat gulping all things made
As stories foul each other trade,
And in the back, well Judas drank,
Then lifted up his voice and sang!
Amazed I walked through dancing throng
Of die-hards in this party long,
And stunned I was, could not believe,
This celebration here I see.
So searched I then for Virgil guide,
There sipping brandy I now spy.
And called me then, he hands me glass,
And then my hand in his he grasps
And pumps my fist, my cheeks he kissed,
He made me feel already missed.
'Take care to keep yours eyes ahead,
As down towards the devil tread,
And as for we, as far I go,
So luck to you on final road.'
'As brothers walked we on this path
That led us here through pain and wrath,
And few indeed have walked this way
Yet lived to see another day,
And although not your journey through,
Remember Virgil whom you knew.'
Then lifted glass and took a drink
And toasted we with glasses clink,
So waved goodbye to former guide
And went I then with nil by side
So stunned, alone, I stumbled down
Towards the demon and the crown!
So struggle there against the breeze
That brings with it the strength to freeze,
The frozen lake where on we act
Is smooth as glass, it has no cracks
And down there in, beneath my soles
I saw those cold souls eyeballs roll.
So in the smoke I walked in fear
At what new evil soon appear,
For Satan bound within this ice
Was now my last remaining prize!
Then see I sight that cause me fright,
As Satan then his six wings swiped!
And all the mist that hid me there
Was shredded by that stinking air,
Till I exposed by Satan blows-
Upon the ice before the throne!
And winds did blow of sins most cold
That through me stead of round me go,
A lazy wind from Satan's wings
That through my freezing laurels sings.
His six great wings this blizzard stirred
While past me frozen sins fast whirred.
And it grew dark within that mist
And life and death then co-exist.
And freezing grew, though now why knew
For Satan to me sorrow's blew,
So looked then down within the flow
Below me see all traitors thrown.
XXXIII
And there they were, the Lords of Scare,
Now caught in Satan's frozen lair.
The same old song of things gone wrong,
The tale was old, the telling long;
Of vilest sin, the plays the thing,
Wherein to capture souls of kings,
To see the lies within their eyes
That corrupt congress One Oh Nine!
And there was Rice within the ice
With Feith and Perle's was damned for lies,
With fifty thousand talking heads
Below me who I thought not dead,
And many more who'd called for War
Though they themselves had blisters swore!
And all of these like head cheese packed
Beneath a shape all evil black,
With faces three beneath ten horns
Which showered me with hate and scorn,
That ten miles high He stood in sky
In vision made to question eye!
In jagged cleft upon the left,
On ragged fangs, well Freto slept,
While all the laws he swore defend
Became a game of torture bend.
Behold the soul Alberto lay
For Constitution cold betray!
So look I up to see who cupped,
Upon whose soul the next head supped?
So looked I up to see in vain
The features of this soul in pain:
For captured there in second face
(But outward in, on head thus grazed,)
The evil squint of Cheney Dick
I saw within, all Devil licked!
And still he sneered like killer cleared,
As if he weren't by Satan sheared.
'O Christ,' I said, 'died not in vain,
To see this evil so contained!'
'But that was that, now this is this,
Upon whose soul do third lips kiss?'
But wore a mask this sinner did,
His traitor face with features hid.
'Now who are you?' I called within
The deepest pit, the wage of sin,
'If Judas soul now be with out,
Then which most foul inhabit mouth?'
'I'm Forty Three!' he answers back
From deep within the final crack,
'I did no wrong!', he says to me
'I searched my soul, my hands are clean,
And I'm not here in final act,
My soul reside with Christ in fact!'
And then I knew most hated threw
That God did send to Satan chew!
For only one could I believe
Deny his place in Hell to see!
'I know your name, eternal shame,
At last in Hell, none left to blame!
I know your deeds, I seen your crimes
That never made the Texas times!
And every friend you ever had
Was true but knew your soul be bad!'
So in one hand he held a cake
Of yellow clay in tablet baked,
And in his other held a glass
Of visions great but chances past.
This man who words of peace betrayed
When war with Brother Islam made;
Who turned a note of shining gold
Into a worthless future owed,
And lied and lied till nothing left-
His soul in Hell by Satan kept;
That cursed him now to lowest grave
Beyond all hope of Heaven saved!
Right then I heard an evil gloat
And cast about for Mark of Rove,
Who whispered words of malice laced;
But plot to him would not be traced.
Beyond again I heard a third,
Till three-four-five became a herd;
Until a multitude let shout,
From prison last of final mouth!
What did I see before the throne
Of evil cast and sorrow sown?
I saw a horde within this maw
And all of them had broke God's Law;
For God speaks not, to no such man,
The proof be here among the damned,
With Satan in the ice to waist
With ABC of sins encased.
So travell'd I from top to pit
In layers layered prison split,
From least of crimes to hated most,
All bound within this sinful host.
Now tour complete, it time to leave
Unless in Hell my soul retreat,
With nothing left I grab the hide
That shaggy hangs upon my right!
Then climbed and climbed, my arms did burn
Until a point when I could turn
And found myself within, by sound
A kind of tunnel underground.
I journeyed up, but could not see
Until a vision present me;
Of circle pure all filled with sky
By Lady sent to be my guide!
And knew then that my soul was saved
As rose I from not shallow grave,
And so return from journey far
Once more again to see the stars.