Silly Sketch

Announcement

It looks like I will be sitting for my exams early–before the end of this semester.

Persephone’s Conundrum

For some reason, I do occasionally write poetry. Poetry is not a wise undertaking in any circumstance, but mine is especially unviable, because I like to make the words rhyme. I know of no poetry magazine which accepts rhyme in poems these days; most explicitly forbid such drek.

Too bad.

Here’s a poem. It rhymes. Sorry. It also draws on a Classical mythos — how quaint is that?

Persephone’s Conundrum

Persephone,
Return with me, I am Demeter your mother.
I gave you birth and all the earth as a pen for you to play in
Perfumed sunlight is yours by right, not this darkness that must smother,
smother you and sunder us; this tomb if you should stay in,
will sunder us forever.

Persephone,
You promised me, I am Hades your true lover.
Would you forget the kisses wet, drenched in pomegranate wine
with which for hours, in hidden bowers, we entangled one another?
Would you forswear what we tasted there, the night I made you mine?
Would you our bond now sever?

Persephone,
Return with me, don’t leave me alone in the cold,
I need you still, for warmth and will, for will to stay awake,
for Winter’s year comes creeping near, and I am growing old.
I helped you walk ere you could talk, now hold me as I take
the steps of my last endeavor.

Persephone,
Can you not see how much I need you by my side?
The weight of souls takes its toll upon the shoulders of their king
— a weight which wanes, if split in twain, and shared with a willing bride.
A prison cell, a loveless hell, is my portion unless we sing
Elysium’s song together.

Persephone,
Persephone,
How long can your fancy deport
Six months above — six months below; mother’s face — lover’s embrace
How long can the juggling go?
Love is eternal, but time is short,
Love is unbounded but jealousy strong.
How long to chose your proper place? Persephone, how long?
A heart will break, whichever.

Persephone by Patricia Ariel