Demeter’s world is falling apart
she enters the tomb
leaving behind every last bit
of skin and bone
her heart in jagged little pieces
tears condensed salted earth,
her spirit as dark as Hades, ashen
her womb, a barren undergrowth of loss, her voice, a howling banshee
sevenfold
Persephone revisited in dreams
her escape futile, Hades whispers
she runs, never holding on nor looking back
dismembered dissociation awaits
those who fail
while cadaverous limbs are discarded
fertile appendages flail
her pieces crumble to dust
Demeter withdraws her love
only to find a serpent tongue
suckling at her breast
Demeter descends, Persephone awaits
her chamber the great unclean
unashamedly devouring our lost souls
Demeter falls to her knees in despair
death is just a figment and life
here is just a memory
she breathes in the rancid air,
the smell of a distant pyre
she kisses the hand that feeds her
there are only fools here in paradise.
Copyright © 2009 Jodine Derena Butler. All Rights Reserved
Poetry Out West 