By Jean Lockwood
Persephone’s heart races as she walks
through the starless void where shadows
whisper secrets of the promises made
six months on earth, six months in hell
the wheel of time turns.
She feels the pull to leave
Mother is waiting.
No longer bound tight by Hades
at the doorway between death and life.
Cool breeze whispers through her hair,
opening her heart, a rose in full bloom
as she readies to leave his lair.
She turns slightly at his trembling voice,
like a leaf quivering in the wind,
“Come back my love, please do not leave.”
She smiles as his words echo
like whispers through ancient corridors.
She says, “I must,” so brief, so final.
A single tear glistens down his cheek,
sparkling like a diamond in the dim light,
heart tearing as it does each year.
He already misses her touch, her kiss.
To him, the love they share is clear.
He notices she steps bravely, no backward glance,
a bird taking flight into the boundless sky.
Her footfalls wake the fallow ground
coaxing life from the earth as
ice retreats and the winds grow sweeter.
Daughter and Mother rush to embrace.
Their eyes turn the season, from dark to light
as they sing a joyous refrain.
Together they weave magic
and the world blooms with sweet perfume
as if the very air is infused with their joy.
For six months her beauty reigns on earth,
forgetting Hades’ tomb.
The Moonweavers Press 