Mythology & Poetry

Orpheus’ Penance

Go, Eurydice, go as I glance back 

over and over. In that infinitesimally small moment 

I held you in my gaze it is clear; you were never mine 

to keep. I would have killed you with safety. I would

have suffocated you in my sleep, I would have broken 

your arms encircling them with my own; I 

captured everything

kept you inside 

my mouth

eaten

those dark aspects, those bruised rings under your 

eyes, that fecund river flowing in your 

stomach. Eurydice, I would have been a man. Go. Go,

take my look as supplication, melt into darkness

and belong to it as I never could. Make blood with the soil, 

shatter bonds of steel, knife, false orbs. I 

glance back in penance

kept inside my

mouth, I

eaten