If Orpheus Had Not Looked Back
Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem
If Orpheus had not looked round, his wife
Would not have fallen back to death. He would
Have had her all his unheroic life.
The Argosy was past. He understood
That. It was likely he would not have gone
Out on another quest with Jason or
His like. Eurydice would see him yawn
With tedium. She would have heard him snore
Instead of singing love and death with lyre
And holy words. She would have made him stew
And porridge by their Thracian hearthside fire.
She would have seen their lust go up the flue.
..His voice would have lost its edge, his song
….Its passion. Boredom would have come along.