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Poetry Corner - Persephone

Persephone
KC McAuley - Sept. 2007

The ground heaved –
Great mounds of earth and rock rose up before her.
She made her way through the rough terrain,
Gingerly stepping here and there.
The mud sucked at her ankles and held her fast.

A mighty chasm yawned before her and up from the darkness

He rose.


His chariot of twisted roots and hardened clay flew high above her.
Sinuous vines wrapped around her and lifted her up.
Up beside him.
Where he pulled her to him and kissed her with his sour mouth.


Down into the abyss they dove.
And blackness surrounded her.

A thousand hands were on her.
A thousand mouths devoured her.
A thousand cries to Zeus she wept.


Hades slept.
At last.
Slowly she slipped the vines from her body.
Slowly she forced the hands away.
Inch by painful inch she climbed.
Up.
Up – was light.
Up – was home.
Up – was all she knew.

With measured pace and careful step the darkness fell away.
Encased in mud
She stood upon the edge of the abyss
And spat into his eye.

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