Then what of those <br /> Whose punishment was such they <br /> Never lived to carry out their crimes? <br /> Children, say, <br /> More than whose fingers were held <br /> For more than a second in more than <br /> The flame of a candle; <br /> Though not exclusively children. <br /> (No need to draw a picture for you: <br /> The chamber, the instruments, the torture; <br /> Forget the unimaginable, the <br /> Imaginable suffices for present purposes.) <br /> If the other was hell <br /> Then what is this? - <br /> There are gradations of Hades <br /> Like the Civil Service <br /> Whereby the first is paradise <br /> Compared with the last; <br /> And heaven is where we are <br /> When we think of where we might have been. <br /> (Except that when we think, <br /> We are in hell.)<br /><br />cassey wolsh<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/second-part-of-the-poem/
