EURYDICE

Why did you turn back,
that hell should be reinhabited
of myself thus
swept into nothingness?

Why did you turn?
why did you glance back?
So you have swept me back--
I who could have walked with the live souls
above the earth.
I who could have slept among the live flowers
at last.

So for your arrogance
and your ruthlessness
I am swept back
where dead lichens drip
dead cinders among moss of ash.

What was it that crossed my face
with the light from yours
and your glance?

What was it you saw in my face --
the light of your own face,
the fire of your own presence?


-- Hilda Doolittle (19??)