WEBVTT

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In the Greek myth,
Alcestis chooses

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to go down into hell in place
of her husband, who was supposed

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to go, but who was
frightened by the idea,

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and who had already tried to
talk his old parents into going

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in his place.

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They refused.

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But Alcestis said
that she would do it.

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Alcestis, for Stanley Kunitz.

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She pulled her gown
from her shoulders,

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kicked off her shoes,
then passed a mirror.

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Her wan face did not appear.

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She left without
kissing her husband.

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In the boat to hell, she
discovered that crowded souls

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flowed together.

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She wept as the casual hands
swarming through her heart,

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waving away flies,
or lighting tiny

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matches to view the
caverns of dark water.

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When she smoothed her
braid, she could not

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distinguish it from air.

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After the boat docked,
she observed her father

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on the porch of a hotel,
dozing beside the guitar

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he played at her wedding.

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She tried to wake
him, her fingers

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glided through his jacket.

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She could not twang the guitar.

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Yet she thought a girl
once danced under the stars

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to its real music.

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Would she sleep this sound?

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Her father bowed his
head, as if listening.

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She sensed the eyes
at every window,

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waiting for her to
come inside, where

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a maid turned down the sheets on
the customary mattress of dirt.

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At the door, she recalled
the candles flaring

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on her last birthday cake.

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What was it she wished for then?

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She glanced back
across the river,

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wishing someone called her name.

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The stone floor
chilled her foot.

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The dog's dreaming by the
stairs lifted their muscles

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for affection.

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But by then, she had no
gestures left within her cold

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and formal hands.

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Thank you.

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