A MAN-MADE HADES by KARL E. MUNDT

If I were sent to build a Hell,
A man-made state of terror,
I think that I could do it well:
I've planned it without error.

I'd punish those committing crime
With vigor and precision;
I'd have my victims spend their time
In constant indecision.

I'd need no livid tongues of flame
No brimstone or no devil,
But still my Hell would earn its name
On a sound Satanic level.

I'd make my sufferers do some task
But never let them know
Just what they wanted; whom to ask;
Or where they were to go;

I'd let them always grope and yearn
In everlasting doubt;
There'd be no way for them to learn
What it was all about.

No Hell of pain, or fire, or fear,
Of some prophetic vision
Could in its punishment come near
My Hell of Indecision.

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