Martin Willitts Jr. - The Garden of Earthly Delight

     

(The Interior, the Right Panel: Hell) painting by Hieronymus Bosch 

Where is God wondering what had gone wrong?

Here, water has color blanched out

by torture and retribution, cities 

of continuous flames, mutated animals 

feeding on human flesh, 

demons find new ways to inflict pain.

Where is God in this deafening silence?  

Victims are tossed into an everlasting caldron.

An unsinkable ship is sinking into iceberg water

as the band plays music to build up hope 

for the hopeless and condemned.

A choir is forced to sing when they have no throats. 

They sing. 

They sing like an anvil and hammer.

The only thing that matters is the off-key singing

like hot coal falling in the dark sky.

Meanwhile, people are ripped apart into paper, 

or stretched out canvas of foil, 

put back together for more.

Where is God?

Martin Willitts Jr won the International Dylan Thomas Poetry Award. His new book is  “Irises, the Lightning Conductor For Van Gogh's Illness” (Aldrich Press, 2014). His forthcoming books include “Martin Willitts Jr, Greatest Hits” (Kattywompus Press), “The Way Things Used To Be” (Writing Knights Press), “How to Be Silent" (FutureCycle Press), and “God Is Not Amused With What You Are Doing In Her Name” (Aldrich Press).