Orpheus tried to warn me

I said to her,
"Beware
of what you invoke,
it will come,"

and though
I would never be heedless
enough
to summon Ted and Sylvia...

that second time in St. Marks Bookstore,
the first time

I understood free jazz
is the sound of
lower New York City,

I purchased The Birthday Letters.

I read her passages
while walking backwards down 3rd street.

She leaned close and felt
the words ping
like stones across my ribcage.

Both, knocked silent.
Those words sweetly rung,

and I swear I heard a harp
plucked when I bought cheap sunglasses
on the corner,

and we kissed where
John died in front of Yoko
while Neptune watched,

and for whatever reason
I remained fixed

on these epic tragedies
of lover's gone to Hell,

and John she shared,
and Ted she did not,

but the second time we reconciled,
she bought me Plath's Bell Jar,

and I wondered
was she
trying to sabotage us,

to drive us into a ditch
or poison us in a corner?

Then, when she left the third time,

scorched Earth silence,
awkward threats,
and artistic titans
stumbling as background,

and our thing-
ultimately mundane.

The worst ending either
could summon.