Luxuria (Lust)

Asmodeus demon of lust
carnal manipulator
****** captor

Castitas (Chastity)

Embracing virtue
honorable wholesomeness
not through one’s weakness

Gula (Gluttony)

The egocentricity
with which the Lord of the flies
upon us relies

Temperantia (Temperance)

practicing restraint
prudence to judge with regard
remaining on guard

Avaritia (Greed)

The Mammon demon
controlling the warmonger
with vows of power.

Caritas (Charity)

Crave unselfishness
give unreserved empathy
love and sympathy

Acedia (Sloth)

Deny grace and God
so evil shall become fact  
when we fail to act

Industria (Diligence)

Fortitude is a must
persistence in conviction
zealous for passion

Ira (Wrath)

In its purest form
presents violence and hate
Satan’s fate

Patientia (Patience)

mercy to haters
receiving the grace to forgive
rewards are massive

Superbia (Pride)

Lucifer’s downfall
for excessive vanity
destroys humility

Humanitas (Kindness)

Sympathy without bias
belief without bitterness
inspire kindness

Invidia (Envy)

resentful passion
an insatiable desire
potent cause of dire

Humilitas (Humility)

think of yourself less
and not think less of yourself
don’t exalt oneself

You are smoking clouds
Craving what belongs to me
I want myself back

GULA

Castor and Pollux
joined forever at the hip.
I could split myself
into two halves just
so they could each get a taste.
I will etch into
both their ribs and lungs
so when they exhale, it’s my
name that warms their breath.

ACEDIA

I have done nothing
but consult oracles to
find a solution
and like Oedipus
I will sit here on my throne
to repeat fathers'
sins. Dear God, am I
the miasma that reeks here?
Would I change, if so?

LUXURIA

Eros and Psyche
have yet to match us, dear boys.
In confessional,
I speak of the flesh-
bruised like rotting fruit, marks
of desperate youth.
Heads bowed in prayer,
this is Dionysiac
ritual madness.


AVARITIA

Will Hades greet me?
If I spit coins from my mouth,
will the ferryman
take pity on me?
He must know my odyssey.
This is déjà vu,
a fable passed down
by generations. A hymn,
Homeric and worn.

IRA

Adonis river
runs red like veins filled with blood.
The anemones
for my two brothers,
a crown for each of them to  
decorate their heads
before guts are spilled.
I know this will end in war,
no glory for me.

INVIDIA

Heroes never die,
they say. So was Heracles
jealous of Linus?
To know forever,
to escape the throes of death
sounds like Hell to me.
What lives on except
curses and their tragedy?
I am no hero.


SUPERBIA

I will take my fire,
let it blaze until I die.
Prometheus would
have been proud of me.
Maybe from this, I will kindle
something from the heat:
Write poems in ash,
for the ones I have scalded,
or the ones I love.

(Maybe those two things
are not unlike after all.
Maybe so, maybe not.)

exquisitely righteous to have the embodiment
of each and every one
standing before me
for all to see
packaged up (I can't say neat and tidy....but all in one place anyway)
it seems reasonable that one person has one or two
but to find them all in one place....
astonishing
I see you

Superbia
Avaritia
Luxuria
Invidia
Gula
Ira
Acedia

they all ring true as they emanate out of you

*we all know what happened to Ursula

Acedia
My god it's 3 in the afternoon
And still I have yet to move,
My slothful torso
Curling into a comma
To hide my face from what rests
Beyond my maroon sheets.

Avaritia
I want to enjoy this moment
Without feeling guilt
For letting the sunlight
Filter through my black curtains
Onto my fuzzy, outstretched legs.

Superbia
There are some days
When I refuse to let myself
Have this
Peace.
Today is not that day.
The knowledge makes me smile.
Softly.

Gula
I rose only once
To make orange spice tea
And to eat sugar cookies
With lemon frosting.
They're delicious, and I can't be
Brought to care
That I won't be burning
Them off later.

Luxuria
I sometimes wish,
Fleetingly,
That I had someone to share
This feeling with.
Someone to curl into
Quotations with.
I sigh into my pillow,
Slowly.

Ira
I grow upset with myself
For wanting something -
For wanting anything -
I see red,
But only for a moment.
I couldn't have this peace,
I knew as much,
So the heat quickly fades.

Invidia*
Still, the people who
Allow themselves such
Simple pleasure,
Such halcyon,
Are who I wish to be.

Tethered to an illusion
He'd rather sink than swim
Abandon all six senses
Rather than feel desolation again

Tis' no crime to trace one's edges
But falling off is a different matter
Shame is a seaworthy vessel
Sailing on oceans of greed and clatter

He rappels from throne on high
Storms heed no man's command
An avalanche of fears behind him
Ahead, a bleak and lifeless wasteland

But seams don't tear unless they fray
Utopia costs more than infinite gold
Ambition built this city of avaritia
But he watches it crumble beneath the soul he sold

I’m not thinking to myself.
I’m aware of your presence,
Just as you are aware of mine
A soul trapped in a room,
With white walls and neon green stripes

My soul is stuck in here for eternity,
Waiting to be freed,
From a curse that riddles it.
The curse brought upon me,
By my sin

Sound of a low hum, I’m aware of it now.
So accustomed to it, I forgot it existed.
I take a step towards a wall,
It recedes one, the gap remains.
I’m overcome by this feeling, I’m just aware of.

Hey, you, the one reading this,
Can you make it stop?
This feeling, it’s unpleasant.
I close my eyes hoping for it to end.
Nothing changes, I still see neon stripes.

This wall’s all I can see.
This low hum, all I can hear.
Make it stop. It’s driving me crazy.
It’s amplifying this feeling within.
… He called this my penance.

Aimlessly, I try to run.
I need to feel a sense of change.
This monotonous scene, I wished for it to change,
And it did. I stumbled upon it.
How I wish I hadn’t.

I knew it was here all along, I’m conscious of it now.
Maybe I was so accustomed to it I forgot.
Or maybe it was so painful I chose to forget.
Either way, desperate to change this monotony,
I opened the bag.




A hunch now confirmed - this bag belongs to him.
I know I shouldn’t unravel, the secrets held in it.
But I’m desperate, to change this monotony.
Not like I care anymore…
And so, I opened the door to endless suffering.

It’s coming back, the memory of my sin.
That monotonous feeling gone, but it hurts,
Pain surging through my body, beautiful pain!
I remember what I did to him, I regret everything.
But it still feels like, I’m forgetting something.

It courses through my veins, ripping my mind apart.
The striped walls distort into billowing waves.
My bones shatter, blood oozes out of every orifice
Ecstasy! Masking pain with pain
For one brief moment, my mind was at ease

Soon seven silhouettes, surface above Styx
Ira, Invidia, Avaritia, Superbia,
Acedia, Gula and Luxuria
Surround me. Taking still silent steps towards
When just a step away, they morph into one entity – Him

“I’m sorry” “It’s too late now”
My features wince in pain. Pain,
Quaking through my body, wrecking all my states
Desperate to find comfort I believe
This retribution is my redemption.

His contemptuous glare stares right through me
He wasn’t satisfied. A smile creeps up his face.
“You forgot again” He slid something into my pocket
“This’ll help you remember again” And he disappeared
Into the bright darkness

I rise back to my stature
Tears dripping down “I’m sorry”
My sins hurt him; all I can do is regret
I can’t rewrite what I scrawled
Into the indelible sheets of time




I reach into my pocket and pull it out,
A picture of him crying. All the pieces fall into place
This feeling of tranquillity in this moment of realisation
This silence before the storm, lasts until I process everything
I was looking into a mirror

My heart sinks into chaos
My mind finds order
Pain so unimaginable
Pain so… painful
Stop this…

You, reading this,
Make it stop, please
It’s hurting. I can’t bear it anymore
Please help me…
Tell him to stop.

Well, whatever. I don’t care anymore.

Heh, the pain’s fading away already
I’m forgetting again
Trapped, in an endless cycle of time
I’m forgetting everything
Forgetting only to remember again

Acceptance, the last stage of this cycle
I’ve sinned against myself
He’s punishing me for this
I plunge into the tender hands of oblivion
Only to relive this torture when she lets go

I’m a paradox
A nonexistent entity
A human bound to a monster
A soul free of dimensions
Caged in a cube

I’m aware of you
Just as you are aware of me
A soul living by the chasm of insanity
Falling in and getting dragged back
Staying out and getting ****** in