By Gala
Date: 13 July 2000
Persephone In The Garden of Hades
So how did she feel about the great compromise---
ransomed so the Earth could be fruitful?
Did she love Him---
was she his prisoner or his wife
and why did she have to leave
if her heart was at his side?
When she walked the verdant spring fields
alive with grasses, fresh with shoots and plenty,
was her heart a desert, dry and parched--
was she dying inside the whole time
sitting in the sun,
counting every kernal of corn or wheat
like sand in an hourglass
marking her return?
They feared her dark lover,
called him Death----but no.
He ruled the dead---
kept the unquiet spirits at bay
but in fact, he killed no one.
Did she love him with her soul,
and hate the glittering stars
for gleaming down on her
when her arms were empty---
or the moon for ripening to full promise
showing her lonely sheets?
Did she dance like a giddy child
when the harvest was cut,
counting the seconds
and trying not to show her joy?
And on her last day in the sun,
did she wait to throw herself
into his arms,
and kiss him endlessly
all the way down to the underworld
blooming herself
for the first time in months,
and forgetting
what she had given
to make green the earth?
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