i’m tired.
i think i would save you, though.
i think i would walk through hell,
through rivers styx and lethe and
the fields of ashphodel.
i’d go all the way there and bargain,
i’d give up my poetry for you,
try and convince hades with poems and words.
and if he agreed i would speak to myself
and hopefully to you
the whole way back up.
and i wouldn’t turn around when i reached the surface,
i would just wait
and hope
that you had really followed me,
that hades wasn’t a liar,
that everything went as it should,
that love worked and everything
worked
and we were allowed to be happy.
i
hades tells orpheus that eurydice can live again if he can make it out of hell without turning
around.
orpheus agrees and starts walking.
he can’t hear eurydice behind him, but he tries to ignore it.
doubt eats at him.
he almost makes it out but still can’t hear her.
he turns around.
she melts away to shadow.
vi
orpheus doesn’t go to hell at all.
he sits and stays in grief.
vii
orpheus tells hades that persephone can live again if he can make it out of hell without turning
around.
hades agrees and starts walking.
he can’t hear persephone behind him, but he tries to ignore it.
doubt eats at him.
he almost makes it out but still can’t hear her.
he turns around.
she melts away to shadow.
viii
orpheus never existed.
eurydice never existed.
this is all a myth.
to go to hell for someone is
unthinkable.
no one would do this.
no one.
ix
orpheus and eurydice break up before she dies.
love isn’t real.
love has never been real.
even in mythic greece.
x
god, maybe tells you that i can live again if you can make it out of hell without turning around.
you agree and start walking.
you can’t hear me behind you, but you try to ignore it.
doubt eats at you.
you almost make it out but still can’t hear me.
i don’t know how this one ends.
i don’t know which one makes me more nervous.
xi
hades tells orpheus that eurydice can live again if he can make it out of hell without turning
around.
orpheus agrees and starts walking.
he grabs eurydice’s hand and feels her the whole way.
they live happily ever after.
xii
i don’t know.
i don’t know much about this at all.
i don’t know how our version ends.
i don’t know if you would turn or not.
i don’t know if you would think to grab my hand.
i don’t know if you would even come.
i don’t know if you would be the one doing the saving.
i don’t know if you would follow me out.
i don’t know if i would save you.
does that make me a bad person?
orpheus and eurydice, you and i
Ace Clarkson '24
it isn’t because i don’t love you.
i do. i always will. always.
it’s because i don’t know if you would want me to.
to save you, that is.
does that make me a bad person?
pushing my idea of you into reality.
i still don’t know.
iii
hades tells orpheus that eurydice can live again if he can make it out of hell without turning
around.
orpheus agrees and starts walking.
he can’t hear eurydice behind him, but he tries to ignore it.
doubt eats at him.
he almost makes it out but still can’t hear her.
he turns around.
she was never there.
ii
hades tells orpheus that eurydice can live again if he can make it out of hell without turning
around.
orpheus agrees and starts walking.
he can’t hear eurydice behind him, but he tries to ignore it.
doubt eats at him.
but he trusts her more than even his own ears.
he makes it out.
she follows.
iv
hades tells orpheus that eurydice can live again if he can make it out of hell without turning
around.
orpheus says he never really liked her that much anyway.
she weeps in fields of ashphodel for the rest of her undeath.
v
persephone tells eurydice that orpheus can live again if she can make it out of hell without
turning around.
eurydice agrees and starts walking.
she covers her ears so she can’t hear him either way.
she escapes.
he follows.