- "He soon as he saw/ that I was weeping, answered." Inferno, I 87-88
What if the thread unspooled
isn't a line meant to keep
from getting lost
in the maze of oneself,
but a trail the one kept long
in darkness can finally follow,
climbing up from the lair of the dead
to an entranceway? The earth's mouth:
a lake damp and metallic with salt,
propped open by pillars of rock
and trees. In another dark
time, poet led pilgrim first
into the gorge: thus we believe
descent to be the precondition
to ascent. That heaven
may not be taken by assault
without first entering in order
to abandon the depths.
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