If your gaze takes in
the world
a person’s a puny thing.

If a person is all
you see,
the rest falls away
and she becomes the world.

But there’s another world
into which a person
can disappear.

Then what remains?
Only your word for her:
Eurydice.

                            *

She paused at the stone
gates and saw
a story like hers
carved there:

the child, Persephone,
fleeing the dark god,
stumbles.
                 A crack
appears
beneath her feet.
Her head’s thrown back,
its sunburst of curls

a golden chrysanthemum
snapped from its stalk.

A mortal’s a blossom
the earth opens for.