Spit, or: Swallow

A limerick

Trigger warning: Domestic abuse

Learning just how to scream Hades' name
was Persephone's debasing shame.
While tending to his needs,
she swallowed only six seeds,
cuz she always pulled back when he came.

---

d’Verse poetics: Persephone

At d’Verse, we were prompted to take inspiration from the Greek myth of Persephone and write a poem.

This is such a rich myth. There are some powerful archetypes here – the innocent young girl, the grieving mother, the reckless lover, the great king of the gods. Or perhaps you see a girl desperate to escape a possessive mother, or an angry woman who is prepared to destroy mankind to get what she wants. Is Hades an impetuous lover or a controlling coercive husband? What about Zeus? He’s head of this dysfunctional family. There are also those seasonal elements – spring merging into summer; the first cold mornings of autumn – those first frosts that kill off the last of the summer leaves. The bleakness of winter.