Street Smart Eurydice

What if Orpheus didn’t walk ahead?

What if it was Eurydice.

Head down, breath hitched

Walking quietly in the dark.

And what if the man following her

Was simultaneously Orpheus and Death,

A jilted lover or a man whose eye she caught

A charming paramour

Or a Lucifer of poor intent.

In that moment, whether Eurydice looks back or not

She becomes something of a Schrödinger’s cat.

Both living and dead, whether she chooses to turn

To stride on and ignore the presence looming at her shoulder

To walk a little faster

and paw at the phone in her pocket

To ready the sharp keys in her clutch.

Whether Eurydice chooses to look back or not,

Her fate 

       is sealed.