Dear Dante, I Have Some Questions (About Jesus)

Ralph James (POLOETRY)
4 min readNov 10, 2019
“DANTE TURNS SEVEN HUNDRED AND FIFTY” by John Kleiner, The New Yorker

Dear Dante,

I don’t believe you.

Sincerely,
Ralph James Compiano II

Dear Dante,

What drug did you take that made you feel the need to write this? Acid? Ritalin? Heroin? Coke? Kush? Which one was it? Was it all of them? Did they even have all of those options back then? Or were you just so sick of being so stone-cold sober that you imagined all of this? Either way, I’m both fascinated and curious. So please tell me another story, or at least answer my questions. Or both.

Yours truly,
Ralphy Compiano

Dear Dante,

What does Jesus look like? If you’ve experienced Hell, then you must’ve at least gotten a glimpse of Heaven too. And if you got a glimpse, then you must’ve seen Him for at least a moment’s time. Does he look like the paintings of him? Or is he more Middle Eastern looking? Is he short? How short? I heard he’s like really fucking short. What color’s his hair? Is it brown or black? I feel like it’s definitely dark brown or a light black, but I could also see it being a hint of red. Definitely not blonde though. Did he look nice? Or did he look like he carried himself like a “not to be too judgmental, BUT…” type of guy? Or did he look like a kiss ass? You…

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