This is the story of a box
and a girl.
And this box –
and this box
was like no other box – No,
like no other box that owned its existence.
Eons of history lived on its walls – I mean, moved on its walls,
I mean, carvings of history played out on the walls
Waves smashed their own heads onto ocean floor dunes,
The lightning swung fierce on the clouds into squalls,
The engravings – the caves shook with war, the volcanoes,
They spat and they hissed, and the nymphs in their watery mists
Danced with haloes on graves of the fallen.
The lifeblood, it pulsed through the veins of this box,
Through the veins of my palm as I held it, the carvings,
They danced with their raw, starving ardors, their bloods and their stardust
And lifeblood, it seeped, lotus droplets, it leaped onto grooves of my skin
Splashed as sparks on my skin and spilled into my palms,
Till my body was filled with the life of this box, with the thrums of this box, with the force of this box
Till the sweet little voice called my name through this box
Whispered, “Open the lid and release me. This box
Is my prison. I’ve risen through hellfire and sunlight and war-blood,
And isn’t it time for the earth to revere me? I am Hope,
I am weary; I am tired of Death and Despair huddled near me
I yearn for the taste of the earth and the Furies
Release me, my vassal, unchain me, release me.”
This is the story of a box
and a girl,
and a thrum, and a voice, and a palm, and a life -
and a war, and a choice, and a hope, and a price,
and a voice that implored me to open the lid
through the trembling, quivering walls,
and I did.

The honey venom strikes quickly
She sinks into the earth,
into embraces of the sickly
sweet blankness, the dirt-
clotted lilies, the trembling musk
of the wind in her nostrils
eyes quivering with dusk,
with the moans of her apostles.
She thrashes through her blood,
through the smother of sunlight
through the Byzantine flood
of amber and honeysuckle,
         of nectar and twilight.

And she forgets her own name,
so she wails out strangers’.
She’s Eurydice. Persephone.
She is no one’s. She’s nameless.
Nails scratching at the soil
at the buds, at the symphony
of the viper’s tight coil.
Her name is Persephone.
And she sinks into the earth
Into the deafening silence
of the heavenly pyres
of petals and honey
        and dirt-clotted violets.

She tastes the remembrance,
She’s Cleopatra. Persephone.
She tastes love, her own fragrance
She is ready for death as she  
releases the breath
that she drank from the flames.
Her name was Persephone,
when she still had a name.
And the sweetness of pale
rose-perfume that lifts from her
is lost on the exhale,
on the glittering dawn,
         on the first breeze of summer.

A beautiful victim
of poisonous greed,
hurt, *****, abused
but was known to be
a monstrous villain.

Hymn to Aphrodite
by Sappho (her only complete poem)
loose translation/interpretation by Michael R. Burch

Immortal Aphrodite, throned in splendor!
Wile-weaving daughter of Zeus, enchantress, and beguiler!
I implore you, dread mistress, discipline me no longer
with love's anguish!

But come to me once again in kindness,
heeding my prayers as you have done before;
O, come Divine One, descend once again from heaven's
golden dominions!

Your chariot yoked to love's consecrated doves,
their multitudinous pinions aflutter,
you once came gliding from the utmost heights, to
this dark earth.

Swiftly they came and vanished, leaving you,
O my Goddess, smiling, your face eternally beautiful,
asking me what unfathomable longing compelled me
to cry out.

Asking me what I sought in my hopeless, bewildered desire.
Asking, "Who has harmed you, why are you so alarmed,
my poor Sappho? Whom should Persuasion
summon here?"

"Though today she flees love, soon she will pursue you;
spurning love's gifts, she soon shall return them;
tomorrow she will woo you,
however unwillingly!"

Come to me now, most Holy Aphrodite!
Release me from my heavy heartache and anguish;
grant me all I request, be once again
my ally and protector!

"Hymn to Aphrodite" is the only poem by Sappho of ****** to survive in its entirety. The poem survived intact because it was quoted in full by Dionysus, a Roman orator, in his "On Literary Composition," published around 30 B.C. A number of Sappho's poems mention or are addressed to Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love. It is believed that Sappho may have belonged to a cult that worshiped Aphrodite with songs and poetry. If so, "Hymn to Aphrodite" may have been composed for performance within the cult. We do know that Sappho was held in very high regard. For instance, when Sappho visited Syracuse the residents were so honored they erected a statue to commemorate the occasion! During Sappho's lifetime, coins of ****** were minted with her image. Furthermore, Sappho was called "the Tenth Muse" and the other nine were goddesses. Keywords/Tags: Sapphic, Sappho, ******, translation, ancient Greek, hymn, Aphrodite, Zeus, daughter, immortal, goddess, holy, lady, heaven, enchantress, enchantment, love potion, charm, spell, persuasion, beguiler, beguilement, mistress, discipline, *******, prayer, prayers, chariot, heaven, descent, ally, protector, lust, desire, passion, longing, ***, crush, girlfriend, women, grief

Oh, don't abandon me, Athene,
for you are the only one
I care about.

If you forget me, Athene,
there will be nothing I can live for
and I will die.

Oh, please don't leave me, Athene, alone,
at the mercy of pigs  in the mud.
I will be dead lost without you,
and nothing will make me alive.

it has been a theatrical performance
a greek tragedy, one might say.
everynight i celebrate
praying to dionysus
and resting in his temple
drinking the fruit of pleasure.
i’ve been drowning myself with anger,
aphrodite is not on my side
didn’t get her blessing at all
it has been so awful
my life could be as compliated as the iliad
i harvest from hegemone’s plants
the leaf that makes me at ease,
a form of running away slowly.
the story of my tragedy
will be engraved in all of your memories
soon enough i will be in hades’ realm
perhaps grow some flowers,
with persephone blooming them easily.
but in this life,
the life that imitates an art form
in the form of a tragedy, a theatrical one
will be remembered
as a great performance, by me,
and myself only.

devour the garden and the
sunshine and the rain, too,
with open-armed and tight-
jawed glory. my mirror is
cracked more each time i
look into it; my mirror is
slithering, silver liquid pouring
down my throat, thorny bird
of paradise curled across my
shoulders. your shoes don’t
fit me right. your scene isn’t
mine and i don’t have a scene
anymore and sometimes i regret
it. is the self-assured smugness
worth its weight in gold? am i
better now that i’ve stripped
myself of bracelets and ink and
leather? or i have i sacrificed the
essential for the sake of your
comfort, for you and your dignity,
for the neighbors and their
mouths? my mouth is inverted and
my smile is crooked and my teeth
aren’t quite together, but i’m tired
of straightening myself out for you.

I'll be your hades
And you'll be my persephone
I'll love you unconditionally
In a world full of Zeus like mentality.

I Hades left my underworld domain
I rose to the surface after being restrained
And Persephone there in a field of flowers
So lovely was she I watched for hours
Her beauty there was none to compare
I hid as she picked flowers with care

I had to have her then I could not wait
Told my brother Zeus my love was great
We hatched a plan to trap my new love
Opened the earth beneath she fell from above
I rose in my chariot took her into my arms
She frightened told her I would not harm

I took her home with me underground
My horse’s hooves did fly and pound
I gave her jewels and pricely precious stones
Taking her hand begged to share my throne
I wooed her with words from my heart
But her being such a rare work of art

How could she love such a beast as me
Banished from above by the gods decree
Somehow her heart softened toward myself
I gained her love kept it high on a shelf
Married I made love to that alabaster skin
I took her sweet body from way within.

Her lips I did taste as much as I dared
She kissed me back she had come to care
But as happy as I tried to make her be
Her sadness resurfaced she longed to be free
I kept her underground in my palace dome
All the while saddened she wanted to go home

Demeter my sister did beg and cry
Her daughter she wept to see by and by
It broke my heart to see my lady love
Wanting so much to visit above
So I hatched a plan with Zeus my brother
I played a trick so she could love no other

I gave her a ripe pomegranate to eat
A deal I made and did so complete
I would allow her to visit the earthly realm
Even as it broke my heart I fed her whelm
But she could only stay for months of spring
In winter she would come back to her king.