Steve Orlen
The Northern Lights. By a few minutes, Jane Mansfield
Stepping off a yacht with Frank Sinatra. In the woods
Outside Avignon, two deer nibbling wild raspberries
Next to the ruins of a Roman wall. I was making out.
I was taking a nap. I was momentarily entranced
By a different sector of the Universe. What would
Orpheus have seen if he hadn’t turned back to look?
The blackness turning gray before him, the great doors
Of Hades, and beyond the doors, sunlight glorifying
The laurel bushes, and sweet Eurydice, who would
Have grown gray, wandering the paths of song,
An echo of footsteps behind her now less famous love.