Limbo and Purgatory

Yes, there is a limbo.

It is built of dream timber and has huge crossbeams

Holding up a calm and foggy place

Where souls wait for their judgment

To be pronounced. 

The heavenly bureaucracy

Grinds very slowly.

So many prayers arriving from school girls

Clutter up the channels,

Creating logjams in the petition-granting department.

And, of course, there is a purgatory.

It is built of thought timber hewn into round posts, and

It holds suffering specially calibrated

To purge the thinkers of their dross--

Purge them of the residue of unforgiven sin.

Limbo.  Calm.  Foggy.

Purgatory.  Suffering.  Purging.

One built of dream timber,

One built of designer suffering.

--October 12, 2013