Phlegethon

 Rounding the damned

With blazing trenches,

Your passionate mauve flames,

Like curtains, hide the lost

From their beloveds.

 

Orpheus

And other young romantics

Sing their laments

Upon your shore

But find not their muse

Among the ragged corpses

Reflected through

The smoky stench

 

Before burning to ash

Before you,

Unwelcoming moat,

 

Their final cries,

Unheard above the crackling,

Seen only as twisted faces

In the distorted air

Radiating from your hellish waters.

***

(Cuenca, Ecuador -- December, 2018)

This is my final poem from my collection of poems about the rivers of the Underworld. Maybe one day, I'll get around to writing poems about the other two rivers of the Underworld (Styx and Acheron).For this poem, Phlegethon is the river of fire. I think I could have done more here to really make the reader feel the heat as they read this.