Too much dancing! The gods can’t bear
the noise of human happiness. They send a viper

to quiet you. Little do they realize the volume
of lament, Orpheus wailing nightly in the gloom.

Down, he goes, then, to pursue your shade.
Sadly, gladly for us all, nothing in Hades

is what it seems, the you he finds perhaps
just a simulacra, yet alluring enough to stop

him in a backwards glance. He leaves empty-
handed. No sniffles: this ending is happy.