March 27: Abandon All Hope, Dante, "Alone in a Dark Wood"

Dante begins the Inferno with lines about being lost in a dark wood in the middle of life.  That's how he comes to the gates of Hell, pursued by some wild beast he can't see.  Abandon all hope ye who enter here.

Darkness has set up shop around me.  Light is quickly fading from the sky.  I'm tired.  Crave sleep.  Or alcohol.  Or both.

Saint Marty hasn't abandoned hope.  Just lost track of it for a while.

Alone in a Dark Wood

by:  Martin Achatz

The night roosts like a murder
of crows in the November jack pines.
I stare into the moonless void.
In the bracken, something watches.
I feel its eyes on my face,
Imagine it crouched in the grass,
Chuffing frost.  If I lunge, I could
Crush it against my chest.  If I stand still,
It could disappear in the midnight fog.
I hear movement, like the whisper of ant legs,
A slender, black icicle of sound.  I listen
For more, a car or the wind or the whine
Of a bear cub.  Where is Virgil to guide me
Away from the dark gaze
Of this skunk or fox or she-wolf?
Where is his dim hand to hold,
His voice, distant as the stars,
Commanding, "Follow," leading
Through this wood where Beatrice
Has abandoned me, alone and wounded?
I listen again.  An owl wails.
A rabbit darts to dirt and roots.