Persephone and the Pomegranate

My response to Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie Tale Weaver #81 /Fairy Tale August 18 – Magic Fruit

 

Daughter of the goddess

Of fertility and harvest,

Persephone had a beauty so rare

That Hades was enraptured;

He craved her for his wife

And had her captured,

Condemned to a life

In the Underworld,

With nothing to drink or eat

Else she would be trapped

In the Underworld for eternity.

Her mother, Demeter,

Mourned her daughter,

Causing the Earth

To cease all growth.

Zeus would not let Earth die

And ordered from on high

The return of Persephone.

But Hades was sly

And brought his wife

A firm, ripe

Pomegranate.

Sharp blade

Split smooth skin,

His fingers stained

By fruity blood,

Hades spilled

Six red jewels in

Persephone’s hand.

With each seed she consumed

She was condemned

To spend

Six months a year in the underworld,

The barren seasons,

When Demeter mourned again,

And then six months of joy

In sunshine and shower,

Bringing growth and life

While Persephone remained

Hades’ wife.

 

© Kim M. Russell, 2016

Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s  ‘Persephone’ found on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rosetti02.jpg