Afterward: A Terza Rima Fanfiction (Poetry)

Canto One: The Death of the Poet.

Dante breathes his final breath and his soul is taken to the shores of Inferno where he boards the boat he weighed down in his life's writing. Hoping for forgiveness, he muses, wondering if he gave his life to his god too late.

From my heart there fell

One final beating ghasp

And who knew whether hell

Would show my mind a relapse

Of what I thought befell.

Instead I heard a rasp.

I think my soul could feel

My heart begin to swell.

T'was time to know what's real

To see if what I wrote

Was truer than the zeal

The church and state promote.

Time whisked away the mist

And I stepped into the boat

That I had thought before this

Would lag under my weight

In hell I made a fist

To ward off whatever fate

Eternally sought my claim.

I hoped i wasn't due for blame.