Ode to the pen

1 MIDWAY upon the journey of our life
2 I found myself within a forest dark,
3 For the straightforward pathway had been lost.

4 Ah me! how hard a thing it is to say
5 What was this forest savage, rough, and stern,
6 Which in the very thought renews the fear.

7 So bitter is it, death is little more;
8 But of the good to treat, which there I found,
9 Speak will I of the other things I saw there.

10 I cannot well repeat how there I entered,
11 So full was I of slumber at the moment
12 In which I had abandoned the true way.

13 But after I had reached a mountain's foot,
14 At that point where the valley terminated,
15 Which had with consternation pierced my heart,

16 Upward I looked, and I beheld its shoulders
17 Vested already with that planet's rays
18 Which leadeth others right by every road.

19 Then was the fear a little quieted
20 That in my heart's lake had endured throughout
21 The night, which I had passed so piteously

22 And even as he, who, with distressful breath,
23 Forth issued from the sea upon the shore,
24 Turns to the water perilous and gazes;

25 So did my soul, that still was fleeing onward,
26 Turn itself back to re-behold the pass
27 Which never yet a living person left.

Yeah, it's Dante, unchanged. Doesn't need to be changed. The Reds are descending into baseball hell, thanks to the pen. Good news is they can get out of it as long as the pen mends its evil ways. Or Krivsky gets rid of the geezers, sends Coffey to Louisville, and calls up some of our minor leaguers instead of giving away the offense. Oh, and trades Milton to the Bankees for cash.