The Caryatid Fallen Under Her Stone

"Before me there were no created things, Only eterne, and I eternal last.

 All hope abandon, ye who enter in!"

~~ Dante Alighieri, 'The Divine Comedy, Canticle I Inferno, Canto III, Verse 3'

Translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)

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fallen under that horrific stone -

("i'm dead! how am i moving?")

you almost feel her every vein, artery, bone and muscle screaming for air,

("am i in hell? or somewhere close?")

her brain boiling, exploding, sliding from her ear,

("is this the stone, my stone?")

pouring out of her nose! see the gruesome liquid

("how.. uh.. when..did it actually fall?!")

crushed out of her skull! what were those stupid

("are these my tears? or my blood?")

numbskull sculptors thinking, placing that impossible load 

("oh, my arms, twisted in a knot..")

on her head? look at her poor arms wrapped around the nape

("i can't feel my legs! will i ever stand again?")

of her own neck, her bare torso mangled out of shape

("but i tried...oh! heaven knows i did! and i'm still carrying it, aren't i ?")

beneath the ridiculous pressure of Truth and Beauty!

("...and all these godawful staring eyes! this must be Hell indeed - 

and i'm stuck on the top left corner of its Gates!")