Pomegranates

 This was a poem that I wrote for my poetry writing seminar course back in my fall semester of 2022, and the goal of the assignment was to write a poem about a specific character, to have the poem share the inner mind of somebody from ancient Greek mythology, and I chose Persephone, whose story is nothing short of a Greek tragedy. 

Pomegranates 

There is one for each month that I spend in Hades.

I watch from below as

my mother's vegetation weeps

and wilts in my absence.

The world above goes cold in mourning,

for I remain down here,

Autumn and Winter turn Gaia into

a frozen wasteland.

Mother yearns for me.

She loathes my betrothed.

Her tears freeze as Khione turns them to snow.

Every day, every hour,

every minute, every second,

I wait until He brings me

my next seed.

The taste is sweeter than the next,

the finest wine imaginable as I get

drunk off the knowledge that

as it nears March,

I'm permitted to return,

but for six months,

to spring forth the hyacinths and lilies

that have wilted during my time away.