Hither and Beyond

Alone before the court of the seven women
And Charon heaves into view
rowing through the empty boredom
to hither and beyond
A light haze beneath the oar
and around the boat
A hunched figure, indifferent
in the emptiness... a pale-grey, blurred silhouette

And this emptiness? The waters of the threshold.
Why remember “hither and beyond”?
To be borne off beside Charon
in the barque
and to sail the light mist of the Styx
for a whole eternity

Between
Hither
and beyond?
Alone before the court of the seven women