where have you hidden, Persephone?
I hunted you
among the frozen
fronds of vernal fog
caught nary a glimpse
of your diaphanous flowering.
were you gowned in sophistry
teaching artifice to nubile acolytes
while old Boreas
stole your thunder
and you frolicked fur-clad
among the April snows?
or were you bullied into submission
grumpy overbearing blizzards
biting blue your tender skin
while you surreptitiously coaxed
timid fragile shoots
with chilled tears of impotence?
belated, you loosed your bonds
I felt your restless sighs
late one night as frost
cracked open, relinquishing
its hoary death grip
I whet my whistle in your tendrils
wrote a lilting ballad
so as to serenade
your zephyred dance
awoke
to find you gone.
where fled you, Thallo?
did you forsake your quenching reign
shrug off your leafing
wilted in abeyance
surrender your ascendance
to Damia’s wanton warmth?
or were you beguiled
with kiss-heated whispers
soaking your brow
as your rains are wont
while your cooling fingertips
traced a languid farewell?
my cheek chilled
just a moment
under your ultimate stroking
Arisen from the Conflagraton 