The Cost of Paradise 

“The tree that would grow to heaven
                              must send its roots to hell.” 
          Prelude

At the whistled mortal interval
broken for the washing of feet
& breaking of bread
a path stumbles where crumbling bricks
meets dark thicket
infected by cankers & conks
in the sanctum sanctorum of druids & sorcerers.

Blinded by rotting branches
seeking to mount a mound
guarded by Cerberus in lion, leopard
& she-wolf in beastly manifestation
as written by the weeping prophet
onto the tablets of the Aleppo Codex.

On the dawn of a ram horned sunrise
the carnivorous triumvirate
force the retreat to where the sun is silent
until solitude & solar starvation
is saved by the aid of Roman Shakespeare
& messenger of four saintly ladies.   

At the gate of abandonment
a negotiation with the boatman, Charon
sets sail a faint cruise along Acheron
awakening on the shore
of the outermost sphere of the underworld onion -
a cocktail realm of Aristotle's & Cicero's imagination
garnished with Christian symbolism. 

  I

Eyes open to desiccated meadows
where asphodel flowers are harrowed
they pass through the seven gates
& mort moat surrounding the castle
kingdom of poetic greats -
      amazed to venture the maze
among the wisest of writers
as the chosen sixth.
onward towards the Citadel of greener pastures
where Trojans & philosophers dwell in limbo.

      II

Descent into the second realm
of the concentric sphere
where serpentine Minos appears
masochistically whipping a cat o nine tails
at a party of lustful intentions
hosting prisoners to sins of passion
he spots the face which launched
a thousand ships
& the suicidal Egyptian seductress -
      all afloat on the storm
born in Keats' dream of lovers melancholy 
dropping him heavy & stiff
as a rigor mortis suffer'd body.

            III

Icy rain falls into the swamp
where a parasitical Cerberus with howling claws
slithers among crawling
thawing, blinded hogs.

Slingshots of mud balls
gag the worms holes
long enough for them to pass.

                  IV

Beneath the sleet where gluttons grovel
their feet bump into jousting chests
pushed by sore hoarders
who saw their weight of gold & silver
drag them below
& block the camel-back passage
through the eye of a needle
into death's other kingdom.

                        V

The disharmonious circle of the fifth
led to the river Styx
filled with sewer swell
& topped with floating slime
where choking drowns
resound in sullen snarls & gurgles
under droplets of eternal damnation.

Crossing the stinking waters
in a barque rowed by king of the Lapiths
introspection turned dark as stark truth
is laid bare.

A wand wielding winged divinity
secures passage past Medusa
& her furious chthonic company.

          VI

Sinking six ticks deep
eyes squint in the midst of flaming Epicurean tombs
where atheists & agnostics
who closed their future portals
                                                burn.

    VII

Steeping the rocky slopes
outside the three warped rings
wrapped violently behind the security
of a charging Minotaur 
they slip along stones
shattered by earthquakes below
into the ring of killing machines.

Thorny shrubbery of suicidal tenancies
hangs from the bleeding bushes
forming the morbid silver ring
& below lies burning sand
scorched by the same flames
which torched Sodom & Gomorrah's fate.

Eventually escaping over the plains in a boiling stream
past roving sodomites
where the roar of a plunging waterfall 
is drowned out by Florentine chit chat
as they bungy jump through putrid mist
onto the back of the winged wyvern, Geryon.

    VIII

Nosediving down the cliff
into the upper malicious ditches 
funneling into a stone amphitheater
whirled around ten torturing trenches
descending into a spiked
necktie well dipped in perversion. 

Casanova’s disciple deceptors
howl & scrap among excrement
in the company of jet setting pastors
who robbed their congregations with prosperity promises
while benefiting from tax exceptions 
those shepherds
who lead their flocks to wolves
now pay the fitting price of damnation.

Tied by chains alongside them in the waste
are crystal ball fortune tellers
& conjurers of cheap tricks
so too the rotten politicians of corrupt gimmicks.

Eyes of grafters  tussling for bribes & riches
fall on shiny distractions
as they slip away deeper into the abyss
sinking into a pit where reptilian thieves
deceive hypocrites & monstrous fraudsters.

Under the sunken north star
a sword swashing demon slays sowers of factions
who are ripped apart from groin to chin.

As the sun reaches the peak
we see the hands of alchemy
tearing through limbs into gut wrenching villainy
in the pit of bloated stomach incestry 
which corrupted all currency.

                  IX 

The floor of hell’s pitted well
is formed by a frozen lake
with four treacherous ice rinks.

Cain escapes the freezing wind
by the skin of his neck & bowed head
however the Trojan traitor, Antenor 
& his treasonous sidekicks
are stuffed bumping frozen heads
gnawing one another at the neck.

Red wedding party participator, Ptolemy 
weeps sharp shards of crystal ice blades
halted in his cut up eye sockets.

Banners hang for the kings of hell
at the inner center
            hung over the twisted
contortionist vessels of the winner sinners
in deadly silence 
where one of Judas' silver coins falling
would sound louder an atomic eruption.

Satan stands frozen at the waist
on center stage -
        as he had in heaven
before the rebellion
when he sang angelic songs
hailed as God's fairest.

The giant prince of darkness
wears three faces of perversion
one in red,
one in black
& one in yellow
attached to the crown
crossed impotently upside down
as his six torn & shredded wings
have glaciers hanging from them
too weak to take flight.

His insect eyes weep
dripping frothy fluids down the three chins
of the multicolored faces
which act as flee infested hounds
gnawing at each others
blistered hanging facial skin. 

From Lucifer's scarred & scabbed 
fuzzy fur feet
Dante climbs with his guide
until they summit the genital tip
& dip through the core
from northern lands
before submerging into southern waters
      where time zones explode directional sense
into confused polar delirium.

        Epilogue

Their journey meets hillside purgatory
on the thirteenth century's,
Easter Sunday
& at the breaking of dawn
they spy a lonely island
peeking out of the vast ocean 
ascending from that mountaintop
into a narrow chasm
revealing the bulging celestial train
                    in the star adorned sky.