This Will Be Your Hell

Based on“Burning Island: Study for The Maelstrom”

(1980) by artist Sandra Meigs

There’s someone trapped in the house.

In the house on the burning island.

In the house on the burning island

in the sea of furious beasts.

In the house on the burning island

in the sea of furious beasts

under the sky crawling with darkness.

There’s someone trapped in the house.

But who put them there?

Point your blame skyward

where the god of darkness resides.

His tendrils of smoke like claws

claim one worthless

human life as his own.

And yet, the icy waters of

the sea-goddess Thalassa crash violently into the hot

coal of the island, her waves

cresting just high enough to remain

a contender in the battle to destroy

the person trapped in the house.

Violent shades of red yellow blue paint

the skin of her minions

once of human flesh and blood

now slave to the sea and its goddess.

Don’t forget the blaze of scorching red

that slowly devours the island.

It is the fire goddess who inflicts

the most suffering, nearly able to claim

her victory.

But wait,

the clever artist has evaded

our investigation entirely.

Oh woman of American birth and Canadian blood,

what do you have to say for yourself?

Possessing the qualities of a god with each stroke

you knew this painting was the perfect place to trap them:

the ex-boyfriend

the abusive father

that boy in high school who hated her for no reason.

Indecision is often considered

a human’s greatest weakness

yet here you prove them all wrong.

Indecision sparked

this three-force hell into existence.

Indecision leaves

someone trapped in the house forever

in the endless cycle of suffering and pain.

Gods and goddesses are born by your hand.

While you’d like to think

of yourself as a god,

even you lose control of this situation.

You call it the final copy.

You destroy your victim.

You let go of the brush.