Visions of Hades

In the desert, I saw the grainy, hot sand

In the hot noon of the desert

Eternal noon

I felt the fiery reflection of the sun

From a million tiny mirriors of the land

My skin began to burn

Eternal burn

I knew this day would come

Far to parched from suffocating heat

Sizzling flesh

Like freshly branded livestock

Like slow turning  flank over white-hot coals

In time it crusted over

To be peeled away again by the seering sand

Sandpaper ripping away flesh

For new layers beneath

Fresh... to burn again

Seered by tiny needle-like shards of sandy glass

I was almost swept away by the intensity

Not quite

What a magnificent ordeal

Now the singing, howling winds

How blissfull this hell has become