The Flight Line Commedia

The Flight Line Commedia is a humorous and poetic description of modern air travel based on Dante Alighieri's 14th century masterpiece, La Divina Commedia. The journey begins with the author lost in a dark, forbidding wilderness, in this case McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas (LAS). Thus begins the author's not so metaphorical "Infernal Return" home.
With the help of his guide, Virgil, he journeys beneath the airport, meeting souls condemned to poetic justice for their sins as obnoxious airline travellers. Each level down takes him to more serious sinners until the worst sinners of all, The Managers. Finally, leaving purgatory behind, he emerges to the light of a new dawn, where his angel, the flight attendant Beatrice, guides him to his plane.
The Flight Line Commedia remains true to Dante's unique rhyme scheme, with references to The Inferno as well as Star Wars and The Simpsons. It was the first-place winner in the 2011 Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Contest.