GEHENNA
I am by myself
Lonely as a jellyfish in a sizzling desert
Spinning in a fast-paced jerky mode.
My lights fading out.
I black out!

Opening my eyes
I find myself in unfamiliar terrain
Walking a strange course.
The skies an horrendous shade of purplish-pink.
I behold the strange impatience of the heavens,
I observe the darkening of the clouds
Threatening to pour down hot tar.
The cacophony of the skies
Heralding the first few drops of the corrosive rain
Geysers surging high
Stretching forth their fingers
In pleadings to the burst-dams of the firmament.
The wind hurling profanities at me
Declaring expletives
precipitously,
The noise gives way to a screaming silence
An eerie calm!
Silence known only in the depths of Sheol
Icy murkiness becomes my essence
I Walk for miles, not a soul in sight
Only the whispers of the wind for company
Treading on dried matter
Crust crackling with each step
My heartbeat mollifies me
As I trudge onwards in desolation.
Looking ahead, beautifully patterned lights catch my attention
What on earth?
Nightmares not dreams!
Unreal no longer surreal!
Homo-sapiens litter the streets,
Their forms dismal and disgusting.
Bodies shriveled,
Limbs sawn-out,
Mouths, chasms of gloom,
Crevasses of trapped muted cries
Jaundiced eyes, blackened teeth, broken noses,
Protruding bellies, impossibly contorted joints, smiley-frowny faces
Chattering indiscriminately
Not a single form of vegetation in sight
Annihilated structures,
Charred skeletons
Wrenched metals
Suspended macadams of death
Unfit, unstable
Thick layers of smoke and fog
Neon lights flicker

With tortured eyes
I see carnage, butchery, pogroms and holocausts
Humanoids floating in blood-baths
Carcass-eating Neanderthals
Blackened stains of blood on mirrored walls,
Mementoes of horrid disasters
The stench of death hangs about
Can hardly breathe.
Mind-boggling civilization
Alongside stupefying devastation

Suddenly

A mad rush, clamor of feet towards a levitating object!
The weak are trodden upon
In the likeness of a stampeding zombie herd
The object now dramatically transformed,
Into a gargantuan screen of brainwashing pixels
The horde mesmerized into hypnosis
Their jaws hung
Wide-eyed, their mouths drool
The swirling colours cease
A gloomy black envelopes the screen
The cursed pixels are reanimated
And what they show
Is the king of all horrors
It’s the time and date:
00:00, 29TH February, 2030.
Almost immediately the screen explodes
Shards of LEDs tear into the crowds
Dismembering bodies indiscriminately
A large piece bearing the numbers 2030 hurtling towards me
I will my limbs to turn, to run
I’m frozen now, the shrapnel isn’t
Floating and darkness!

I’m standing in the middle of the street,
A cab driver cursing me out
Loud honks filling the air
Vertigoed
I stagger drunkenly to the sidewalk,
Muttering faint apologies to the impatient throng
My hip vibrates
I dig in, retrieving my cellphone
What catches my eye isn’t the caller ID
But the ‘13TH May, 2012’ flashing at the top right corner
I’d been jolted back to reality.
I inhale the fresh scented air
A far cry from the poisoned atmosphere of my couchemards
I had been on the other side of the wormhole.
I recognize the surroundings fairly
I’d been here only a few minutes ago
Howbeit, technologically superior and environmentally degraded
I’d seen evil and agony unimaginable on this very street,
La rue de despondent
Seen the effects of the errors of ages past,
Consequences of the misdeeds of modern times
I had walked the corridors of time.
Seen the looks of uncertainty and despair in every face I glared at
My assertion is harsh but sad veracity,
In man lies hope!
In man lies doom!
I have seen the future.
It is gehenna…

Oreoluwa Aboluwarin