Our carriage rolled along a narrow street,

rumbling over cobblestones, passing signs

that creaked in the alpine breeze and streetlamp

flickers. The midnight sky and its crush of

stars glowed, a distance beyond the whisper

of my prayers.

Aphrodite gazed at me solemnly, saying,

"I have great pity for Sappho; she lept

from a cliff into the Aegean Sea.

So it is with all whom I love."