Persephone leaving - a poem by Chris Zachariou

Hades and Persephone by Tatiana Barbesolle

When Persephone came back to me

a rainbow of colours exploded in the world.

I had waited for her for so long, I could only see

the child that left and not the woman who returned.

To me, she was still my gentle lover.

We swam and kissed in the warm waters of the sea
but in the panic of our loving, I did not hear the blushing
pomegranate fruits calling my lover home.

By autumn, sad and melancholy colours were falling
on the ground and brown leaves whispered of winter.
The flowers stopped blooming and all the trees began to die.

My Persephone was no longer smiling

and a shadow from another world had fallen on her eyes.

I knew then Hades had come to take her away.

Dreams of frozen lands with icy rivers,

of golden chariots and of majestic crowns

were rising in her eyes and the voices

of the dead began to call her home.

When September came my sweet child was gone.

This time something told me Persephone will never

come home to me again.