Hell. Poem by Thabani Khumalo

Where once advanced the river of blood loaded with civilian corpses;
where there used to be the great depression of infernal hell;
where there used to be the deepest mine of a sordid death underneath the earth,
there ran a rapid torrent and filled it up into a lake or a crater or a sea...
The water ran in and extinguished the ambers from roasting the dark souls of the demons below,
who had survived the squalor of life licking the blisters burning under their ugly feet,

I was there trying to draw a dearest relief for my tormented soul;
we missed the snow and wished between penguins or bears as we survived the ruthless conflagration.
In a moment off a torment, there were black ambers floating on the surface of the water,
and the miners were happy to skim them off and go light them up beneath their thatch.
The devil breathed a succor down to the whey of his abominable soul
and drank a fulfilling quench of the still waters whirling deep:
the water is deeper than the depth of god's hatred for us evil men.
the queen devil and I held hands in a pledge to commiserate each other
and cried together looking hopefully in the teary eyes.

The demons pleaded gratitude to the water god
who had brought us supplication from the lord of heaven's fire flames under our wings.
The angels of heaven had long played their soft songs from the golden harps jeering,
celebrating the punishment for the iniquity of our fathers who died in sin before we were born -
for in heaven, they are holy men who have never touched the breast of a living woman.

Though we remain at the bottom of this man-made sea,
we sing loud rock praises to the everlasting dark lord because,
in our home, now the fish have a home too
and the people swim there when they need to feel simply natural and free.
We are the devils of hell and we savor the whims of our submarine queen.