NAUKRATEIA ARTISTIC AGON 2009

Poiesis Entry: Persephone’s Dilemma
by Jennifer Lawrence
Awarded 1st place!

After my fear faded, it was sweet in his arms—
Sweet as the honey in spring
That the bees have hoarded throughout the cold winter,
Curdling and clotting to pure sugar with the passing of months.
My time below was like that: dark but sweet,
And like the tiny cells of wax that the bees’ children sleep in,
Bereft of light.
He never meant to scare or harm me,
But after awhile, he could see how much I missed the day:
I grew wan and pale like the grass under fallen branches and stones.
I missed the flowers, missed the warmth of the sun,
Missed the songs of the birds and the laughter of the nymphs.
Missed, most of all, my mother’s smile, the safe shelter of her arms,
Her unending love.
It took a long time, but at last, she found me,
Came to fetch me back to the golden world above.
My heart raced, eager as a rabbit in the lush green field,
To know the daylight again, to run barefoot over the verdant grass,
To return to my playmates
And the heady scent of bright blossoms. 
But I have grown to love him, father Zeus,
Whether it is what you intended, or not, when you gave me to Hades as bride.
His silent strength, his dark beauty, the way he would defy you and my mother—
Indeed, all the Undying Ones—to keep me at his side.
Who would not yearn for that sort of love?
I cannot turn my back on him forever,
No matter how much I miss the sunlit lands above,
So watch now, I pray you,
As I take this pomegranate from my husband’s hand,
And one by one, swallow down such seeds
As will give you no choice but to command me to return
Every year to his side—
The best of both worlds, dancing in daylight above,
And embraced by him below—
This pilgrimage, going back and forth between both my homes,
Is the only choice that I can make.
Let this be our secret from my mother:
Say that I swallowed the seeds, unknowing what it would mean,
For as I go home to her now, I would not break her heart,
But I cannot go with her,
Leaving him behind, alone, for all his days,
And let her break mine.