The mind is its own place, and in it self
Can make a Heav’n of Hell
—John Milton
One day, while reading about afterlives
in all of their varieties—Nirvana,
Valhalla, Bardo, Sheol, and the worlds
under the surface of the earth—my son
asked me, “What happens to us if we’re wrong?
What if the worst of them exists? What if
there is a place of everlasting sorrow,
a pit where suffering will never end?”
I looked down at the book, then up at him.
“If that is true, then we will go to Hell.”
And Dante wandered through my darkened mind.
“We’ll flee into the wilderness, across
the gloomy wood, and through the open gate.
We’ll navigate the Acheron and Styx,
and pass the upper circles of the damned.
We’ll walk and walk and walk into the depths
until we reach the demon-haunted walls.
The city Dis will be our destination.
We’ll go because the Lord told us to go;
obedient like all the fallen angels.
We’ll stand in Dis with other heretics,
and we will mourn together, we will cry
unto our God to ease our suffering.
Then, we will try, even in Hell, to be
His hands, to comfort those who stand in need
of comfort. If we’re told to take that path,
we’ll go to Hell and make a Zion of it.”
D. A. Cooper is the poetry editor of Further Light: Science Fiction and Fantasy in the Latter-day Saint Tradition.
