He called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me,
and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water
and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.’
                    —Lk 16:24¹

If this isn’t hell, then it’s a reason for it to exist,
fifteen syllables in and I haven’t even reached the first circle—
every repetition has its purpose,

of this I’m certain, when heaven sends curses
instead of kisses, forgive me for saying again what fills gospels:
if this isn’t hell, then it’s a reason for it to exist,

we live without end suffering sent to lead us on, purchase
trouble from false idols incapable of love, hollow gods who tell
every repetition has its purpose,

that each burn, in turn, serves to reinforce this,
that every time I buy what misery she sells, an angel falls—
if this isn’t hell, then it’s a reason for it to exist,

the last one I met, a “virgin,” she said she was pregnant with
god’s kid, that she was only turning tricks to fund two myths with one bill,
every repetition has its purpose,

of this I’m certain, any story worth recording’s impossible
to believe until you’re hurting, the need feeds what seems incredible—
if this isn’t hell, then it’s a reason for it to exist,
every repetition has its purpose.

__________
¹“The Gospel According to Luke”, [Chapter] 16[, Verse] 24, in “The New Covenant Commonly Called the New Testament of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ: New Revised Standard Version” of The Holy Bible: containing the Old and New Testaments with the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical Books: New Revised Standard Version, published at New York by Oxford University Press in 1989; page 81.