It Was Late November

It was late November, as I now remember, In that fearful autumn as I lay in my room, Dreaming of a lost love, a love now gone forever, Whose body lies so still and quiet deep inside her tomb, When I saw before me (oh, soul-destroying vision!) The nightmare gates of Hell and all who therein dwell, Sent as a warning by one within that prison, Sent by her who’d loved me from out that burning Hell! Writhing souls and flaming skies then spread out before my eyes; Countless was their multitude, deafening were their cries!! And I could see, as if a god, all, ALL their thoughts and memories, Heard ALL their hopeless lamentations, felt ALL their agonies!! Memories of a billion wasted empty lives flooded through my shattered mind, While the screams and the pyres of a billion souls drove me deaf, DROVE ME BLIND!!!! Now I've been in this room ever since then. I try to keep quiet, I try to be still, Still as a tomb when the doctors come in. One with a needle and one with a pill, I sit very still in the room that I’m in, The big room downstairs where they put the mad men. (Sept. 12, 2016; Scare Me Good contest)