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Necessary Hell

Is it not interesting to see
How the Christians continually
Try to separate themselves in vain
From the doctrine of eternal pain?
- Stevie Smith

Hell hath been described by men,
a thousand years from ages when
you liked it or were tried,
struck down, strung up, sky high’d.

But now description is finessed,
like an iron maiden dressed
in granny’s gown and bonnet.
Their logic likes to pirouette.

The dance, as I recall,
is known as sophistry. Appalled
by hell, scholars form a fire brigade
and soak the brimstone colonnade.
Put pots of flowers here and there.

But concepts change, or die.
Hell belongs nowhere.
So why not break the colonnade in bits?

Because God’s house is built on pits.
Because reward is not enough.
Because whence cometh sin.
Because the carrot needs a stick to dangle from.

Because men’s hearts are tin.

Written by The_Silly_Sibyl (Jack Thomas)
Published
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