Eurydice Among the Living
(Answering Rilke)

by Charles Coleman Finlay

heart of the city: she walks among headstones in this graveyard of giants while the rose of sunset unfolds as it does each day eurydice sings, and her song confounds the metamorphosis of orpheus. the dead have their attractions, too, and death, like the desert, with its severe beauty, is a place where the toughest hearts take root. so he follows her (they all follow her) and takes her by the hand and would compel her, but she sings, with her whole being sings, until he must turn away from the image that he holds and gaze directly at her. she laughs and fades and chants farewell. listen.