Persephone's Worlds

Persephone's Worlds

I have wandered far from thoughtless girlhood,

am a woman, a Queen

in my own right

Yet I am treated with the expectations

of a mindless child

in my mother's summer home.

The Gods are all agog with Zeus,

fickle, abrasive, free to take full stance

above the laws he so imperiously commands.

My Dark King is so much more a man,

sincere, deeply feeling, committed to his realm,

compassionate, if not always kind.

Yet, here I must obey the crowd,

displaying charm and grace

in haute couture, making small, insipid

conversation with the socialites

decorating Zeus' lawn parties.

Up here, life is meaningless, 

All flash and doggerel

to amuse, O', do entertain us

So tiring to endure the ennui.

Those not privy to opulent entitlement,

relegated to the dregs of servitude, or less

endure for their time, brutal, painful, short,

for no good reason.

I hear their horrid tales, 

back in my rightful place and purpose.

Shrunken souls, shriveled by life time hungers

still growling beyond the grave.

I am balm and wise mother.

At last they matter, their stories opening in me

a marvelous passageway through which they are

taken into paradise.

My life above, the petulant daughter,

the pampered goddess spawn,

I endure coldly.

Summer's trivialities, properly obedient to

rituals of the socially conditioned

know nothing of my true life

under Winter's glory.