FOLIO XI Judecca IF HE WAS ONCE AS BEAUTIFUL AS HE IS UGLY NOW, AND LIFTED UP HIS BROWS AGAINST HIS MAKER, WELL MAY ALL AFFLICTION COME FROM HIM. —DANTE, THE INFERNO Canto 1 ONE I reach for the end, though the end will not reach for me. It has already reached for him. He is gone while I, locked in Judecca’s ice, go on and on. If I could name the nameless thing My father burns, and living worms fall from his eyes. They spew from his sundered flesh. They pour from his open mouth. It burns, my father cries. It burns! His contagion, my inheritance. If I could face the faceless thing From the fire’s depths, I hear the discordant duet of their screams. I watch them dance in the final, fiery waltz. My mother and father, dancing in flames. If I could pull the two apart If I could untangle the knot Find one errant strand to tug And lay out the thing from end to end