Where heroes go I may not know
Nor dare I venture even guess
How any of the guilty rest
Within unending Hades woe

Yet wandering the shores of Styx
I’ve written tales of gallantry
Befitting none more valiantly
Resisting this infernal bliss

Still waiting for the veil to lift
On maenads vying for this verse
Compassion is my lover’s curse
To them my empathy a gift

But wicked thieves ensnare my heart
Still stained in shadow’s lyric ink
The instrumental missing link
Is little more than broken art

To after living’s parallel
Bemusing state ecstatic trance
Revealing after second glance
My spirit freed in Asphodel