Because I Love Women

I am condemned to the Seventh layer of hell.

Guarded by the Minotaur,
the fury,
and encircled within the river Phlegethon,
filled with boiling blood;
The violent, the assassins,
the tyrants, and the war-mongers
lament their pitiless mischiefs
while centaurs armed with bows and arrows
shoot those who try to escape their punishment.

The stench here is overpowering.

Home to the wood of the suicides-

Stunted and gnarled trees,
in twisting branches,
poisoned fruit
hanging from their branches -

The Harpies,
foul birdlike creatures
with human faces,
make their nests.

Beyond the wood
is scorching sand
where those who
committed violence
against God and nature
are showered
with flakes of fire
that rain down against
their naked bodies.

Blasphemers and sodomites
writhe in pain,
their tongues
loose to lamentation,
and out of their eyes
gushes forth their woe.

Usurers,
who followed
neither nature nor art,
also share company in the Seventh Level.

Because I love women,
find solace in a smile,
a hug from a friend -

Because I love
midnight talks,
our round table,
fishbowl of goddesses,
and our endless
beehive dance -

Because I love the
expansion of your lungs,
the vibrancy of your fury -

Because I love,
upon greeting,
how you tuck your nose
into the nape of my neck,
breathe in the scent
of the jasmine powder
I dust on each morning -

Because together we revel
in the beauty of womanhood -

Because I love -

I am condemned to the Seventh layer of Hell.