Departure

Our footsteps on the dreary Stygian banks -
The verses of the unfulfilled desire.
Requite me with unuttered words of thanks
For being thy guide to Hades realm dire.

The opium for neverceasing pains -
Black waters flow so virgin and so placid,
My agony, however, yet remains
As blood within my veins turns into acid.

I could not torment thee, my fragile rose, 
With love confessions all too late and hollow.
We both diluted bitterness with prose,
We almost made it bearable to swallow.

Condensing from compassion and remorse
Mist eats away the outline of the ferry.
The aftersound of "farewell". Henceforth
Until the end this guilt is mine to carry.

Persephone shall be thy mournful queen
Of chill and everlonely winter seasons.
My memory shall keep thine image keen
More vividly than all the other visions.

06.06.09

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In response to "A Rose for the Dead" by Irina Babanina:
http://stihi.ru/2007/09/12/1532

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And Irina's truly astonishing reply:

"In ashen realm beyond the rays of sun
I feed on songs, like sparrows feed on crumbs.
Poor Orpheus, you've searched for no one.
Play mournful cithar for bacchantes' drums.

The souls locked beyond the touch of hands
Are free from joys and fetters of the flesh,
But never-ceasing memory torments
With afterglows of love, like burning lash.

So leave me under stone skies so low
With ghosts of clouds, in whispers of dead grass,
Go drink nepenthe from the Lethean flow,
Return to Earth, forget and let it pass."