Canto 8.9 1/2

Carmela Risquet

Ms. Johnston

English IV Honors

23 December 2010

Canto 8.9 ½

I am stuck here forever, only to talk in my own

mind for all of eternity. The torture of being trapped

inside myself is punishment enough, wouldn’t you think?

I do not wish this on any other person, for when I

speak - the burning pains alone make me wish back

 the words I’ve spoken into silence. If only there was hope

For me in the future, to try and get out the words I

so painfully try and express. They may not be truthful,

but that is the only thing I know to speak of.

Each time the words try and come out, fervent, blistering flames travel

up from my throat and spill out of my mouth. The pain

is like needles scraping my esophagus with each vocal sound.

My tongue cut is off and hung in front of me constantly like a vane,

            every try to speak of anything, all effort is redound

            back to me, just like all of my lies that have left me with a stain.

Seeing others makes the sight of myself plainly profound,

            a simple way to communicate, taken from me without any

            remorse, not even the pleasure of a mere rebound.

They’re all here you see, the ones that I’ve pained with my

words of untruth – their spirits that is, teasing me with

their precious words which flow so easily off the tongue.

I say all this in my head, for the words are too dreadful to utter –

as time goes on few humans pass through, to see

what the torture is and pray this won’t be them too.

Every day my process repeats itself, never allowing me to

speak of any thing without a grotesque repercussion

of torture. You do not want to be here, a dark, shallow

Place where the souls of those around me are locked inside

of their own minds, forever burning in the selfish lies that

have caused pain to others and will now cause eternal discomfort.

My canto takes place in the eighth layer of hell where the falsifiers (liars) are found. The level is called 8.9 ½, which is just below the sewers of discard, but not yet a falsifier. These are the people who tell lies every day just for their own personal satisfaction, and these lies end up hurting the people around them. The punishment for this sin is that each persons tongue is cut out and hung in front of them like the end of a bomb, if they touch it, it will explode. Each time that they try and speak any words, any at all, a harsh and vicious flame will come up from their throat and pour out like a dragon – along with needles scraping at the insides of their esophagus’s. The punishment for these sinners fits their crime because it doesn’t allow them to talk, which restricts them from telling lies to other people. Since they lie so much, nearly everything that they say is a lie, so by taking away their ability to talk it punishes them and also puts them through pain and suffering much like the people that they’ve lied to. My canto is written in the point of view of a liar in this layer, and what he goes through every day – since though he cannot talk, this is technically what he is thinking of and what he would tell us if he could speak.