MOUNTAINS OF GEHENNA (photomorph) & SNOWBALLS IN HELL (free verse dream poem) by Roswila

SNOWBALLS IN HELL

as I work my way up the several flights
of stairs to our apartment, I also work my way
up into anger that no one's bothered yet
to try out that new vending machine we got
that makes and dispenses free snow

then my step slides on some papers
on a landing and even as I note
they're poems by someone unknown to me,
I nearly have apoplexy, leaving
the pages right where I'd stepped on them

after all, climbing stairs is hard enough
given my arthritis, without then having
to ever-so-slowly bend over
and retrieve some careless
person's stack of papers

oh damnation, my roommate's got company,
two women I don't even know, from whom
I immediately sense an intense hostility

it's a good guess that the poetry on the stairs
belongs to one of them, but I zip my lip,
turning toward my roommate
with a questioning look about these women --
as usual she's oblivious to anything
coming from me, anything, that is, short
of anger, which she always considers a crime

the shiny new snow machine catches my eye
and I decide to try it out, but before I do,
I take the useless shot and ask if anyone else
has tried this machine yet -- my roommate
rolls her eyes dismissively and the two women
look at me as if I have three heads

I laugh mordantly to myself as I think
that a Cerberus* image is actually
rather accurate, seeing as I'm now
going to learn how long snow balls
last in Hell, well, if not actually
in it, at least at the door sill

and better to be on guard at it's mouth
than to go straight into Hell
in a hand basket


[free verse poem on a dream of 9-5-15. This is that lengthy dream poem mentioned in my last two days' notes. *"Cerberus [usually depicted with three heads] was always employed as Hades' loyal watchdog, and guarded the gates that granted access and exit to the underworld." Click here for the full Cerberus myth on Wikipedia. What I find striking is that Cerberus guards in both directions. Also, given my issues with food/obesity (and the candy vending machine here where I live!), this sentence from the Cerberus info on Wikipedia is rather pointed: "In Dante Alighieri's Inferno, ... Cerberus is found in the Third Circle of Hell, where he oversees and rends to pieces those who have succumbed to gluttony, one of the seven deadly sins." I'm still chewing over (another apt image) what these and other associations ultimately tell me about this dream. Photomorph "Mountains of Gehenna" (5-27-15 017v7a) by Roswila]

PLEASE NOTE: in most browsers you can click on the above image for a larger version. Also, the photo accompanying a post is not necessarily meant to illustrate it, but to reflect some small, even slant aspect of the verse, similar to Japanese haiga (illustrated haiku).

There are many other sorts of posts on this blog. I indicate which are about or influenced by dreams. Some non dream focused posts are book reviews, "regular" poems (some by other writers, as the above is), scifaiku, writing exercises, Tarot haiku, photos, haiga, and so on. However, most of those are in much older posts. There's a listing by month going back to early 2006, at the end of the sidebar.

* * * *

until next time, keep dreaming,

[a/k/a Patricia Kelly]
**** If you wish to copy or use any of my writing or poems, please email me for permission (under “View my complete profile”). Roswila's connections & other blogs: Charter Member of the United Haiku and Tanka Society (UHTS); ROSWILA'S TAROT GALLERY & JOURNAL; ROSWILA'S TAIGA TAROT; TRYING TO HOLD A BOX OF LIGHT; and THE MARKER TAROT.