Your icy reign almost an end, <br />stolen bride prepares her return to light. <br />Emerging from the dark chrysalis of your bed, <br />pulling green shoots from your black depths, <br />she drags them to her mother <br />who, once more, will relent her curse: <br />embracing Persephone. <br /> <br />Does your annual arrangement still rankle <br />after all these centuries? <br />Do you brood each lonely half year, <br />gnashing teeth in rage? <br />Does th'intensity of your longing <br />melt Gaia's very core? <br />Or, is grief buried behind veiled lids, <br />beneath mountain ranges, frozen in granite <br />holding pain in some test of contemplation? <br /> <br />Observed details of her absence: <br />dishes stacked in sink; <br />centerpiece fill'd with blackened fruit; <br />clothes strewn (a mathematical proof of Chaos): <br />empty pizza boxes; crushed beer cans; <br />& a carpet that crunches with each step... <br />Fiercely you embrace your emptiness. <br />Holding a scent of her memory tight <br />you squeeze, until light begins to recede - <br />th'onset of shorter days. <br /> <br />Anticipating her return, you call a maid service <br />to clean & restore your realm, <br />polishing walls bone white, preparing her way. <br />& at the instant when all is in stasis, <br />earth paused in its dance a held breath, <br />when eggs will balance on their points & not fall <br />cracking like your heart each Spring <br />she comes to you: bringing a bowl of flowers. <br />Your heart leaps in your dark throat; <br />Light fills the Underworld <br />& you run to greet her: <br />embracing Persephone. <br /> <br />Copyright Hugh Cobb, Revised 1/06/2005<br /><br />Hugh Cobb<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/embracing-persephone/
