Malebolge

So now we enter the eighth pallid doorway
Cold, bitter lead and cloth await me

Measurements for the fitting of gold
Tailored to accent my deception
Donning my shawl of burdensome lament
I join the unending march of shame

A plain of listless faces
A pace that rivals mountains'
A sheen like glistening fossils
Atoning

A grave of forging tombstones
A howl that rivals cyclones'
A shade like rusting metal
Atoning

A wood of muted petals
A grasp that rivals beggars'
A cowl like horses' blinders
Atoning

A grove of deathly gazes
A cell that rivals convicts'
A throat like maggots writhing
Atoning

Eternally

As a blight on the map of the sky, reigning
Our dense flesh will decay like the tide, waning

Poetic justice imbued to condemn abusive youth
I should have stayed my tongue and realized I was being uncouth
And blaming ineptitude just served to obscure the truth
A deflection to ignorance is little more than excuse

So many trusts I betrayed without remorse for the pain
A little compassion would probably have tempered disdain
And as relationships frayed, tearing apart from the strain
It look me long enough to realize I was less humane

Now I have time to reflect, oh so much time to reject
The predatory behaviors that manifested neglect
And I had learned to correct actions that fed disrespect
But consequences aren't absolved for labors in retrospect

The crushing weight of this shroud, this obstinate crown endowed
Perfectly echoes the facade my apathy once allowed
And in the midst of this crowd, agony droning so loud
These arteries, like cavalry, invading suffering proud

Intransigent, unyielding earth, antarctic
Recalcitrant, consternation cathartic
Absolution by static rapture, unknown
Only by the relentless pounding of dull bone

"O, everlastingly fatiguing mantle!"
es from our drowning lungs, abyssal
Tethered to a visceral moment, passing
Much like the unforgiving ocean currents
I will never be consumed by soft white noise
Only by the relentless pounding of dull bone

Separate