Equinox
Her heart was Winter in a Spring body
ice wilting peonies in the morning
with forlorn thoughts,
looking out a the window,
feeling like they forgot something,
phantom pains for bare branches,
frostbite, fogged breath, cold fronts, to compliment her heart,
to be fragile in an ever growing mind.
His heart was Spring within decay,
daffodil bulbs fading away,
tulips kissing the coffin seal of leaf litter farewell,
maybe, he was meant to be in the pits of hell,
body housing woe and misery,
the product of milling about dark cave systems,
trying to feel past ache, wandering for touch,
to change
to build
to live,
to be
past umber and crags,
senses filling with earth and cold,
inching toward a light that had haunted his shoulder
his own haunting,
the light at the mouth his domain of which he hushed, standing in frame,
looking out at the bright world,
sternum heavy with birdsong in the wind - he listened
to the branches of the olive trees swaying in the wind,
and he let himself be beckoned in.
She slipped away from Demeter,
fell into the ether,
collapsing into the heaps of honey etched wheat
exhaling their grit, grating her throat, as if the weeds were reaching down to pull up
fronds of growth and bulbs and harp strings of lilac,
curling away as ice burned them from deep goddess kin’s tomb.
She smiled at that.
She wished to be vicious - because that would make sense -
to be wreathed with thorns and pick at picking hands -
nymphs cooed for Persephone, she pressed against the reams of grass,
holding her breath until their voices faded away.,
it wouldn’t be long until she would be found, she was always found, crying -
the clouds cast their rain heavy heads at her,
plaiting her to the earth -
with her tears.
She cried and cried, begging Olympus to make her right inside -
to not have Demeter hush her, fixing her crown as she wept, ignoring who wore it, and that it felt uncomfortable pinning down such briary thoughts -
a shadow encompassed Persephone.
Golden eyes - spheres of the Sun, beamed at her.
words fluttered on Hades’ lips.
The briar celled girl, rose, studying the god in her garden.
Their hearts surprised each other,
ancient halves recognizing each other after eons,
meeting the next phase of their story after this chapter of searching through meadow and morose haze.
As Persephone circled Hades, her silence another ring of doom,
she felt a gravity pull her closer, until, she was tucked into his warmth by his arms around her waist, staring up at his eyes,
feeling - for the first time - right with the world.
Hades smiled -
for it was the first time knowing that he was not wrong for he was blooming in her beauty,
daffodil darned in his how swiftly he spoke with her,
lightning bright and thunder romantic, telling her the forlorn love ghosts have for their maidens, and she laid it to rest in her quiet -
until she was found by Demeter,
only after sharing
six
seeds
of
pomegranate
with
Hades,
planting their time in her country,
where it would be Spring with a chill,
and Winter with bouquets.