Descent Into Hades
In order to discover what took place,
I eventually made a descent
by slow ratcheting, hard and easy, caught
at last by the moment despite warnings
and my own considerations. Your face
appears before me and your will, unbent
at great, gross expense and in the end wrought
against yourself, unenlightened, dawning
in darkness beyond black water in rage
still and always and not at peace unless
they say or do what is quite beyond them.
So I stay – with you in your golden cage –
on the other side, no matter that I press
for admission or call out the headsman.
Alan Dunnett wrote/voiced the film-poem Interrogation, Best Experimental Film at the Verona International Film Festival 2019. Easter Reckoning recently appeared in The New European. Shot in the Head is in The Very Edge, a collection from Flying Ketchup Press, 2020.