The Arsenal

I construct my fortress carefully,

with words and verses, catch

phrases and platitudes, theologies

of my imagination, to articulate

or simply utter, in growling tones,

to fend off the evils outside,

discovering too late that I’ve

imprisoned the evil within.

This poem is submitted for the One Word Blog Carnival hosted by Peter Pollock. To see more submissions, please visit Peter’s site.

This poem is also submitted for Open Link Night at dVerse Poets. The links will be live at 2 p.m. Central time today.

Illustration: The St. Louis Psychiatric Rehabilitation Center, constructed in 1869 at the St. Louis County Insane Asylum, is located on Arsenal Street in St. Louis and for years was known as the “Arsenal Street Asylum” or simply “the Arsenal.” Today, it seeks to help people return to society, as opposed to keeping them away from society.

One more circle

They grow like a fungus attaching

themselves with hooked tentacles

into work, productivity, creation,

innovation, value; toxins pouring

into the lifeblood. Dante created

nine circles of hell and perdition:

limbo lust gluttony greed anger

heresy violence fraud treachery

but he forgot one more circle,

the tenth circle, the lowest pit

of all: for those who call

meetings.

This poem is submitted for the One-Word-At-A-Time blog carnival (the word is “more”) hosted by Peter Pollock, and for Open Link Night at dVerse Poets (where the links will be live at 2 p.m. Central time today).

Illustration: Dante’s Inferno by Gustave Dore.