Demeter’s Lament

How dare you appease me
with lithium and light therapy,
to deafen my daughter’s cries?
A numbed soul cannot grieve.

These death black nights
moan as if in childbirth
as I did long ago
waiting for her, hoping. Fearing.

She is gone (again).
I play my part once more as
the perennial waking dream unfolds….

Slick harness leather slips through my grasping fingers
I taste the salt sweat of indifferent beasts who strain onward
feel my body thrown (again) between
grinding chariot wheels
and betraying Earth.
Cursing, broken, I (again) watch Hades disappear.
And she -frightened and radiant-
(again) in his smirking grasp.

I despise her for dropping her apron of flowers
and swooning in his shadow.
Persephone, my simpering divine child.

Don’t demean me with solace.
Grief wanders with me within
to hear her voice whispering hope
from seeds in the muffled snow.
In her voice spiders mumble
of life in their sleep.

Grief melts a sanctuary into this frozen hell,
it is my strength for the downward journey.
It is my strength to cross the river
and demand what is mine.
My strength to bring her back (again).