Persephone Elopes
Watch her steps
On any ancient frieze:
He’s a terrorist; she’s his
Mission: the country he’ll kill
For. He says he’ll blow apart
Her home if she doesn’t come
Now shielding him and
She does beautifully—
The girl as cigarette
Igniting when he draws
On her. Feline: nine lives
Spoken for.
He is her fiancé.
His stolen gold in her bedroom
She alone can handle.
She likes his foreign taunt:
“I claim responsibility.”
Don’t ask.
She won’t snap
Out of it or straddle
His shadow.
He wants to
Take her
Underground.
Demeter in November
Winter squash nest and soften,
Neck to haunch, under the bed.
Demeter doffs her boots and stomps
Through the kitchen.
Blue eggs shiver on the counter.
She reads her daughter’s letter to the fire.
…So fed up with yr effing flowers!
Met a god who pleases me. Hurrah!
If only Demeter had cut her brother-
Seducer, Zeus, that serpent in the corn.
Yet who begets a child
without greed or guile?
She scores a pomegranate.
Whacks the shell again, again.
Jeweled arils pull apart.
Amorphous hearts all in a wine-red gel.
Demeter spoons the seeds:
The fruit, her sweet grenade.