2. PERSEPHONE
And after all this to live with Mother again
wake for the reaping and
Lie docile for the ink-stroke of night
To run its hand over my sleep
I never thought it would be so easy –
:
The return, I thought:
The re-deployment, battle lines redrawn.
As children skipping home
By the growing blue shadows
Pick at the invisible seams of their clothes
Wondering if they had grown too big for them.
:
To return: to correct misinformation,
Deal medallion-bright justice –
The un-righted wrongs of yesteryear
Fixed now, here in the past, fixed
By woman-future-extraordinaire.
:
I thought to fight –
I thought, the lingering votary of magic,
The bombastic red poppy stays
For no distant, father, husband, sun.
It calls to fire;
burns only in shadow.
:
But maybe this:
:
Magic needs not announce itself
When it had and has been
The Nothing
Burning everything.