Sophia sits beside him
on the wooden bench.
Outside the cell
angry voices shout;
someone groans;
someone cries with pain.
Inside the cell, he slumps forward,
keeping the bleeding welts on his back
away from the rough wall.
She is here to comfort him,
absorb the fear, resignation, heartache,
but what she can not do,
must not do,
is offer hope:
hope will dilute his suffering;
even the slightest hope
will take away
from the sum of his suffering,
and thus,
from the sum of all suffering.
Ultimate love
can only be unleashed
in the face of
ultimate suffering.
Hell is, by definition,
the absolute absence of hope.
Text and image © 2015 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.