Eurydice Variations (2) - Kathryn Hinds

[highlyeccentric]

I made him look. Oh yes, I made him turn —
And I'll not soon forget his stricken eyes,
Flared open as he saw and realized
The thing for which I truly yearned
Was not his love, nor yet the living green
Of earth. It was the dark, unseen, undreamed
That called to me; all else, all light, I spurned.
Already to Persephone I'd made
My pledge to help her nurse the sickened shades,
And in my time in Hades I had learned
To love the strength I wielded in the deeps
And then the caverned rest surpassing sleep.
I felt his sorrow, and I grieved his loss —
But I'm more than just the grief of Orpheus.