Abyss

He sits in the abyss,
the price of his ways.
A would-be conqueror
now a shivering wretch.

His prison is vast, cavernous,
pits tunnels, molten furnaces,
frozen hollows, rancid streams,
cavities crawling with pestilence.
Things unseen by mortal eyes
stalk the tunnels,
forge new fissures.

The first to see this place,
he repents his mistakes
and all they cost him.
Familial faces drift from memory
along with their disdain
when their son, wrapped in chains,
cast into a rent in the earth,
disappeared from the world.

The demons hunt him underground.
He takes shelter in wretched crevices,
repents and regrets, begs for mercy
from those he betrayed
and those who followed him.

The cold, the fire, the torment
eventually convince him;

Repentance has a sour tang,

vengeance tastes succulent.