(Takes place in the 1st ring of circle 8, after Dante’s Inferno, Canto 18, line 69: then reached an outcrop jutting from the bank.)

There, our eyes did see a man different from the rest

with holes where his eyes once had been,

as if a grinning skull once made at him, a jest.

His ankles were pierced by parts of a large pin,

betwixt the joints.  His walk was feeble, to this I can attest.

Those horny devils were merciless against him, whipping with a grin.

My guide stopped by my side to wonder aloud, ‘Do you see that depressed

soul there?  That is Oedipus, once king of Thebes.  Go, and ask of him his sin.’

Approaching, I called out to him, ‘You there, Oedipus!  If you do not protest,

pray tell me how you came to this place.’

He turned his tortured face towards me, his eyes catching mine.

His hollow sockets were akin to the pit of despair he now inhabited in his disgrace.

Lifeless and unseeing, those haunting sockets seemed to span time.

Slowly he spoke, ‘Woe is me who ends here, in this vile place.

I left the place I called home to save my family from my foretold crime.

Along the way, I met a man who ordered me aside.  Thinking it a disgrace,

I fought and slew the lot of them, an act I committed that one time.

I came to the city of Thebes, and by solving the riddle of the Sphinx, saved their race.

Desperate for help, they had offered the person their queen as a prize.

Recently widowed as she was, a kingship I earned that day.

Unlucky for I, a plague began to quickly rise.

Calls for answers led to the need to cast Laius’ murderer, to the queen’s dismay.

Bent on punishing that man, I set out blindly, most unwise.

The time quickly came when, upon learning the truth, things looked most grey.

That prophecy I once ran from was revealed, Laius was my father I surmise.

The rest also came to pass, for I defiled my mother’s bed later that same day.

My mother-wife ran to another room, I barged in to see her as she dies,

hung from the ceiling like a sick version of a servant’s bell,

I grabbed her and brought her to the floor, and stared down at her.

Pulling off her brooch, I brought it up to carve my eye into a shell.

Of myself, I wished for a transfer,

banished from this land willingly.  Of my children, I said farewell.

Long I lived away from that city but death, no one can defer.

Down I came to where that Minos stands to dwell,

Eight times that tail wound itself ‘round me, how I came down here is a blur.

Woe, that is the tale of how I landed in this hell.’

I looked on that wretched soul with disgust before posing this,

‘Why blind yourself to the wonders of the life?’

That blind king replied, ‘Children make a parent joyous, what right had I to reminisce

of how they came to be from the mother I took as my wife?’

My lord replied to this, ‘Something in your story goes amiss.

How came you not to know who your parents were in life?’

That unseeing king answered quickly, ‘Left for dead with no motherly kiss,

I grew up thinking others were those who sired me,’ with words like a knife.

My lord looked at me, easily read, conveying to leave this abyss.

That horrid soul we left behind as we turned to leave,

my head spinning at the prospect of such a person once living.

Virgil turned to face me, away from where prying ears could perceive,

saying to me, ‘That one has lead a miserable life, and one his thoughts will keep reliving.

He is the worst you shall see in this ring, but none will earn a reprieve.’

Walking away, the yelps of pain from that soul could be heard, the whipping demon unforgiving.

Thinking back, I found I was no longer naïve,

that I had grown to understand the torment meant for them was not misgiving.

My mentor turned to acknowledge my silent thoughts, agreeing with what I came to believe.