At the Bottom, In the Pit

When we investigate a case of Gluttony

thinking what you get is what you see

with your over riding sweet desire

to consume much more than you require;

a weakness described by the size of the plate,

gets stronger each time at an alarming rate.

Then we must deal with the sin of Sloth,

like selfishness but cut from heavier cloth.

Laziness that invariably leaves you in bullshit;

gone way past knee deep, in up to your armpits.

This desire you will not control for the easy;

the “I” that goes looking can see only “Me”.

Here is inserted an explanatory word

why Ambition’s name has not been heard;

turns out she had no real desire to hurt you,

seems somehow to have switched sides, is now a virtue.

We’ll cover this tawdry dangerous ground because we must;

when it is Prurience you dance with, your sin is Lust.

If it feels good you feel you must do it

if excessive pleasure runs right thru it.

Her kisses will smother you though, and then some;

in hell they will kiss you with fire and brimstone.

Do not Envy one the mission of reporting on this sin,

smells bad up close and can’t account for where it’s been.

Drooling over fortunes and properties of others

with more pocket money and better looking mothers.

You think it’s because they are just luckier than you;

not just some everyman, green rather than blue.

Thought by some to be the worst, ungentlemanly Pride,

who so stridently maintains he has nothing to hide

has a matter of excessiveness in discipline.

He could use a whole lot less of this in him;

demands that you nevertheless too deeply feel,

and in hell will get you broken on the wheel.

The closest call to be included came from Anger, here defined

as frustration/aggravation uppercased and underlined,

can be useful if somehow properly directed

but this proper path is never easily detected.

Wrath may be explained, but never rage;

no ill-tempered paragraphs on heaven’s page.

Before the lights come up to end the Sinner’s Dance,

we tip our hat here to the sin of Arrogance.

While somehow not thought of as deadly,

she will bludgeon ones last attributes as readily.

She leaves behind the damsel Fallacy and her cleanly severed head

as often as any of so-called deadly cousins ever did.

At the bottom, in the pit, near the pot of bubbling Avarice oil;

justifiably thrown into for all time, left to boil.

For representing a none too distant relationship to Greed;

are lines of lawyers hand in hand, taking ten times what they need.

Broken souls they twisted bled out the fees that let them live so well;

so get lined up to witness as the bastards burn in hell.