On Not Looking Back

1. EURYDICE
I will not stand in the light
with you again. That much I know:
death and prophecy consort together —
in tasting one, I taste the other.
But I would like to travel almost
there with you, to see, from below
a cleft of earth, that far brightness
where swallows weave and sing and nest.
Orpheus, do not look back just yet.
2. ORPHEUS
I say it over and over:
"Do not look back'. I know
this journey is a test
that has been planned to witness
some strange law.
I won't see her, face to face,
again, she will be lost
suddenly, finally, before
we are there. I sense
her hastening, her
falling back, her tranced
footsteps tracking my shadow.
She holds me in view, I conjure
her from darkness:
she is the promise of new
light guiding me past
each blind desire
to turn and look — to know
you, free of the body, at last,
Eurydice, in this wilderness.
3. HERMES
I am their guide, sent to quarry
this moment, the sundering
they, not Death, have created. My
cloak enfolds her, winging
her back down. His cry
fills this cavern, echoing
through her, their last act of love.