TARTARUS-PERHAPS WE SHOULD NOT BE

Thank you to Editor Mark Antony Rossi for publishing "Tartarus" in Ariel Chart.

TARTARUS-PERHAPS WE SHOULD NOT BE 

SO QUICK TO JUDGE

Protection lies above the waters.
Where the rivers flow around,
Tartarus is found.
Deep,
with fallen angels
hanging like spiders from their web
above liquid repercussions.


Floating overhead,
Seraphs,
feeling some of the emotions
of human siblings.
They watch grievously as the ferryman,
lacking in joy,
conveys the sorrowful downstream on Acheron.


At Cocytus,
cold be her waters,
they linger above those icebound
as a result of wings and slender bodies.


Hovering over quick and streaming Lethe,
Celestial beings will sleep
until called forth to defend us in the Great War.


The whorling cauldron of Phlegethen
lies prone beside Styx
and the Thrones drift above
the river coiling
like smoky corkscrews rising.


Styx separates Hades and Earth,
where Charon does double duty,
and those with metal stamps upon their tongues
stream below the hovering Dominions.


The Powers, who are not within fire or ice,
once dishonored and shamed,
will one day rise to help us defend our very souls.
Our sacred brothers, come to redeem their own.