THE FIRST CIRCLE, LIMBO

By Mark Henderson

This is better than Heaven.

No chatter from incomprehensible multitudes,

each trying to reach the other across eons of dead language;

every silence is a pregnancy more beautiful

than seafoam and angel tongues in this darker place

lit by a single candle, not quite a country of the blind

despite the sharpness of our other senses

in savoring the arrivals of both visits and homecomings.

(Look, everyone. Virgil’s brought a friend.)

The light of knowledge need not be bright

if too much leads to stabbing out one’s eyes;

here you have time to learn without haste—

until the gods’ twilight if not eternity.

Respect is better than love from their like.

#darkpoetsclub