Persephone Sets the Record Straight

Persephone Sets the Record Straight By Shara McCallum from The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror Tenth Annual Collection

You are all the rage these days,

mother. Everywhere I turn, I hear

Demeter in mourning, Demeter

grieving….poor Demeter.

Always craving the spotlight,

I know this is what you wanted:

your face on the front page

of all the papers; gossip

columns filled with juicy tidbits

on what life was like before winter,

old hags in the grocery store, whispering,

how she’s letting the flowers go,

while the young women hover

in their gardens, fearing their hibiscus

will be next on your hit list.

After all these summers,

you still won’t come clean.

Passing me iced tea, instead

you ask, how’s the redecorating?

are you expanding

to make room for little ones?

Fanning away flies,

you avoid my eyes, saying,

I’ve so longed to be a grandma,

you know.

For God’s sake, mother,

can’t you just tell me the truth now it’s done?

Just once, tell me.

How you put me in that field

knowing he’d come,

that you made the snow fall

everywhere to cover your tracks,

that the leaves die still

because you can’t punish him

for confirming your suspicions:

not wanting you,

he took me instead.

Of course I ate those seeds.

Who wouldn’t exchange

one hell for another?