"Hell"

Hell

(from Orbis 200)

How comforting it is to think of Hell!
    Without it, how we ’d suffer from the terrible
Injustice pil’d around us all pell-mell!
    But since it ’s down there, anything is bearable:
We watch the wealthy government expel
    Poor refugees, or wage a war, and we ’re able
To shrug it off. It carries almost no sting,
For those responsible will soon be roasting.

We picture nice long, sharp, hot spits run through
    The murderer, the pimp, the Argentine
Dictator disappearing people who
    Speak out, the TV-preaching thief, the swine
Who dumps pollutants in our lakes, and, too,
    The jerk who cuts in front of us in line
Down at the post office. It keeps us humming
To know they ’ll all soon get what they ’ve got coming.