Hellfire

after Dante

I try to find words to fit the untold look,
Necessary as the binding for the book.
We search for ways to say what must now be said;
But we'll be together only when we're dead.

Heaven or hell, I don't care. What is heaven
Without you but hell; hell's heaven if you're there.
So, here we are in hell's fiery embrace,
Held by love six feet short of heavenly grace.

Although our lives were taken while we sinned,
Given life, we'd have to do it all again;
For Love, which absolves no one loved from loving,
Seized us both, forcing us to feed this feeling.

If we were apart, penance would be complete,
But hell would freeze with the absence of love's heat.
Here in your arms, my love, love is burning bright,
An atoning flame to light hell's endless night.

--Loraine Walker