by Chris Harris
Part Two
In which Nathan enters the Envious Chamber.
Abortion.
Medusa.
Pride leads to envy, the vicar had always said.
I chuckle at the irony that I only
use his teachings when I’m dead, or at least near death.
This pathway I had followed; the dark spiralling path
had led me into a circular area,
surrounded by vivid red fire, running blood.
On the ground, rolling in blood of the deceased
was the mangled, aborted remains of children
Unwanted babies, unable to crawl or talk
righteously envious of their living brethren.
No sight can enter their small undeveloped eyes;
at least they will never see this nightmarish realm
in which they dwell, along with the snake-haired Gorgon,
Medusa, who sat on her black stump, watching them
watching them fall, watching them suffer, whilst a grin;
a grin of wholesome malice and delight emerged,
dividing her green, envious visage in two.
I hurried through this chamber hoping to arrive at
the metaphorical and literal light at
the end of these tunnels of which Hell was comprised,
but Medusa swung snake-like around to see me.
She hissed, spitting venom, but I kept my eyes shut,
remembering the Gorgon’s petrifying stare
not least because of the statues behind her bulk.
I broke into a clumsy run, tripping over
nearly falling, but making it to a pathway;
one of two paths that branched off, I took the shortest
Medusa hissed, her grand envy of the living
Foiled once again.