It’s not every evening you undertake a kind of katabasis, a downward journey during which infernal forces confront you and return to the light of regular days can feel at moments a bit tenuous.
In his poem Inferno, the medieval Italian poet Dante had the ancient Roman poet Virgil to guide his katabasis. Joe Grieco, in his poem “Wind and Fire,” has Dante.
Wind and Fire
It wasn't our first fire.
We wanted to text you all night,
But we couldn't stop.
The air blew hard and so dirty.
Where were you?
Actually, none of us should be shocked
By burn speed.
The Avenging Angel was born with racing wings.
Dante told us that: we ran into him on Lake Street.
He said hell is messy.
Sometimes ash is worse than smoke,
And smoke is worse than flame.
We're in recovery mode now, trying to normalize.
It may be a little early.
You see, we're never really out of harm's way,
Are we?
— Joe Grieco
Joe Grieco has written poetry most of his life. His research and consulting business in Pasadena sometimes got in the way. But he’s okay now.
Local News Pasadena (LNP) publishes poems grounded in current news events from the greater Pasadena, California area. Submit your own poetry here.
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