after ‘Orpheus and Eurydike’, choreographed by Pina Bausch
They walked the beach as sun rose through cloud-bands
and the moon not yet down; the sands
like stars: the sun and moon in the sky together!
And all their heart’s desires in their hands.
A wave of the world broke over them, and he
was left sprawled among ruins . Where was she?
All he saw was horror, wreckage; no walls,
roofs… nothing. A voice said, Come with me.
Rocks and Stones
Reached for the light, there was none;
only shade; and alone, sprawled—
were those people? Or rocks, stones?
‘Who are these?’ They were the strangers
you shared that day with. ‘All these?
Will they ever wake?’ Some, maybe;
there are many though, who never wake;
who turn to dust. You walk on them.
His silent tread stirred up that dust;
it moved and flowed: the particles
of lives — lost to time, shadow.
‘There are people alive like this.’ he said,
‘If I am now to be honest… I’ve…
done this too.’ And now, his guide
answered, all those who, like you,
wasted time, see here where it goes.
They entered an ingress of deeper shade,
a folded area of quiet, blackness.
michael9murray 