From Marjorie Evasco's "For Maria Kodama's Other Borges"

II. Orpheus Falls Who has not heard the Poet's lament/ for one descended into dream's dark stairs?/ Who has not heard the gods'/ admonition, given with knowing smile--/ Do not look back--/ last trick to play/ on the body's lighted book of memory?/ Every single instance, the lover fails,/ falls,/ quick to where the sought-after/ back to the surface of time. He sings/ to her, "Ascend with me!"--/ yet in a/ moment's breathlessness, hers,/ he/ looks back and she's undone,/ charred bones/ and ash./