Dante on the Elevator

Between Heaven and Hell

By: Charles Giuliano - Jan 09, 2015

Dante on the Elevator
Between Heaven and Hell

Were Dante alive today
He would say
Ride the elevator
Heaven and Hell
Night and day
Spiritual chiaroscuro
Vergil the operator
Changed at purgatory
Pagan denied salvation
Descending levels
Gothic circles
Sinners
Feeling the heat
Sweating it out
Bottoming with betrayers
Damned and wretched
Booted out by Charon
The eternal ennui
Boredom of Sartre’s
Other People
Penance
Rising up through the
Flaggelants
Backs whipped raw
Grim Goya painting
Rising through Purgatory
The nowhere land
Neither damned nor saved
Eternal apathy
Suspended animation
Unending hibernation
Burst through the clouds
Paradiso
Martyrs and saints
Souls of the saved
Disembodied angels
Sexless smiling faces
Oozing goodness and grace
Like Iowa in summer
No place for hipsters