Persephone Remembers

Persephone Remembers

In the world of the dead there is no time. Yet every autumn, as the days grow shorter, the spirits of the underworld sense that Persephone must soon return. They grow restless and call to her in lost, hollow voices. In the world of the living, the sound of their cries is echoed in the wind sighing in the dry grass and moaning through the bare trees. For many of the living, it is a sound that speaks to them of the frailty of life and the ultimate, unknowable void of death. They draw closer to the fire and to one another, and they cherish the warmth of life.

Living, Dying: Deathwalking my mother, a memoir

Living, Dying: Deathwalking my mother, a memoir

Once, a man tried to kill me. A vast storm of heartbroken rage, he backed me into a corner, unescapable. Wild on crack, he brought that knife-ended arm up over my head, then down. With his 6 ½ feet and 300 pounds blocking the small cubicle in the bookstore, there was nowhere for me to go but into his furious embrace. Did I think that, plan that?

(Art: “Around Dawn” by Erich Kuithan(1875-1917) )

In Another Life

For Astare:

In another life I stand with nose pressed against yours in the high plains, caressing your muzzle...

In another life I squall in a filthy basket, misplaced in the exodus...

In another life I smell your moist breath all night in the stall, poor and happy...

In another life I skate restlessly across frozen Lake Saimaa in search of I never know what, another version of freedom...

In another life I am loud, political and save many of you from slaughter, but never find You...

In another life I'm not given up for adoption but grow twisted and grief stricken anyway...

In another life we're inseparable, traveling northern trails together for 30 blissful years until you leave me to 40 years of desolation...

In another life I rebel, leave home, find the streets of cities and make my art, learning the language of agitated striving...

In another life you stand guardian of my sleep under cold stars, nuzzling me awake when we need to move on...

In another life I wander plundered landscapes planting flowers and trees until my worn fingers turn green, and I sing of you

In another life I make too many babies in wartime, and it's always wartime, and I thankfully die young...

In another life I wed a tree who chants your name for me in my dreams so I don't forget you...

In another life our love meets for the infinith time, always returning to you, bright star...