Leaving

Leaving

Like Persephone,
you leave for six months.
I mourn, then resign myself.
But then, when I have grown
expert at pinching in
feelings,
my diet of the soul,
and manage to navigate
my day without tears,
you plan your return.

Demeter
must have steeled herself
to endure,
hoping that being with Hades
for the half year
left her daughter
with light enough

to greet the sun
without burning
each time
the underworld
released her
and spring warmed
her mother's heart through
from six months
of frost

only to go dormant
when her daughter
left again
and again
and made winter
of her soul

until another spring
thaw