Vasari's Lines

Hell is above you when you walk through the
door. Before the guide with halting English
comes over, look up and see Vasari's
lines. The layers separating the damned
from the saved. Everything detailed and
the pain and suffering clearly visible.
For a few Euros imagine how an
uneducated man from five hundred years ago
would feel looking up and seeing despair -
the only salvation coming from the
pulpit in a language he hasn't learnt.
Now - a group of tourists, loud-voiced, English
move freely through this world under the eyes
of the next. All worry gone. Yet above,
the devils still look down and smile.