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Orpheus, Emerged Updated

Orpheus' long, slow, crawl out of Hell Has left him nothing -- not even himself! Long had he traveled, sorrowing, with his bride, and many terrors endured, and now Unslings his lyre, and looks at her too soon!* He rushes back... she meets him... calm... forbidding... "Eurydice, My Love, so sad, your gaze... Come quickly, ere the shadows form, and take you... No! Your form dissolves, before the morning's rays!" She fades without embrace into the caverns of Hell... The Tears he sheds, that kiss his lanklorn cheeks Leave bitter runnels, trails as deep as scars, Just fruits for shadow-journey, pomegranates... Forgive poor Orpheus, O Wind! O, Stars! The Tumblers have rolled back into their slots, And Orpheus, the Lover who fought Death, Is lonely now, and the Ravens cast their lots. *according to the Greek Myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, Hades, the God of the Underworld, agreed to release Orpheus' dead lover, Eurydice, from the Underworld, with one condition: Orpheus could not look back at her, until she emerged from the Underworld. Once he emerged, he thought she had followed him, turned joyfully around! But she was not yet out of Hell, and consequently, Hades required her to return to the realm of Death.

Copyright © | Year Posted 2019




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Book: Shattered Sighs