dear mama,
i know i left too soon and
i know i miss you but
i met a boy with
eyes like the river styx and
a kiss like a funeral.

dear mama,
there are no seasons here but
the light on his face and the
heart of the beast that
he killed for me a week ago are
bright enough to tell me that
time doesn’t exist in death.

dear mama,
sometimes he gets so angry that
the foundations of
our palace shake and shiver and
the fire in his soul and the
fury in his heart
frighten me.

dear mama,
it’s my last day here for
this year and he
holds me like he
doesn’t want to hold anything else and
i don’t know if i want to
leave at all.

Persephone is crying in the Underworld
In rooms of pomegranates
And dark violet blooms
In places created to give her what Hades
believed he couldn't
“He walks as if he believes himself Death,”
She thinks
“He watches his reflection like Hera watches Zeus;
disgusted.
Always looking for some former glory.”
But the 3 Fates are his alone
How did he not see her coming?
She cries because she loves him
And he doesn't know how to love himself
She hands him pomegranate
And bloom
She shows him every mirror in her room
“How can you not love what is only an extension of me?”

The Gods wanted to think she did not love him
They found this easier to believe.

Be to her, Persephone,
All the things I might not be;
Take her head upon your knee.
She that was so proud and wild,
Flippant, arrogant and free,
She that had no need of me,
Is a little lonely child
Lost in Hell,—Persephone,
Take her head upon your knee;
Say to her, “My dear, my dear,
It is not so dreadful here.”

I wonder if God
    sees our numbered
breaths, how many
     have been & how
many are left,
millions of digits
    shifting above
our heads;
the old woman
 on the park bench
        with just 500 left. 
The jogger with 100
   between now &
        tonight when he
will exhale
     for a final time.
I should scale mountains,
         stare at the sun
  make my amount
  count, every last one.

Narcolepsy* hard and heavy watch me fall asleep
            Lulled to bed in a cunning thread of the tangled web we weave
    I dream in pristine colors, windows of my mind anew
No fingerprints or ***** looks or evidence of you

         I find comfort in forever wherever it may be
        I may have left my home but it will always stay with me
                 The smell of all the smoke with the sound of all the rain
   On constant playback every second deep within my brain

        I found that time is all that matters and everything else faded
        I spent years and years learning how to forget everything I hated
    I've only gotten older and have nothing left to show
              Except a ringing alarm clock and blood on my pillow

     Narcolepsy** hard and heavy watch me as I sleep
     Another pill, another high, another date to keep
      If I shall die before I wake, I hope that I'm with you
    Then it won't matter where I go, cause you will see me through