Poseidon & Persephone

I lay in the tub and think about pomegranates and shipwrecks. I undo the stopper with my big toe and watch the water sink down the drain. I feel myself sinking down into the porcelain, until I can only see the tops of my feet sticking out of the water like that Frida Kahlo painting. Down through the tub, down through the floor, down through the earth...Is it winter again so soon?

I'm back beneath the secret places of the earth, and the underworld this time of year is just...well, the underworld. Charon and the Furies keep me company, but you know, they have their own stuff to do. Sleep and his brother Death live under us, and they spend their time passing dreams through 2 gates, one of horn for true dreams, one of ivory for false. They send me dreams of sirens and seahorses playing trumpets, but I never know which gate they came through. Memories right beyond the cusp of recognition. I know I knew you once. Aphrodite's last words to Adonis echo when I wake,

"But I myself must live who am a goddess

And may not follow you.

Kiss me yet once again, the last, long kiss,

Until I draw your soul within my lips

And drink down all your love."

I write down my feelings for you and fold the paper into a boat. It sails away on the river with the hope that it will reach your castle under the sea. Salt melts ink and all you get is a soggy white ship, skewered on your trident. I wonder at your life, your sea nymph queen...

They say that when the world was formed, it was divided: Zeus got the heavens, Hades got the underworld, and Poseidon got the sea. The big 3- my father, my husband, and
you...Bowie, Iggy, and Lou. I guess that makes me Blondie, goddess of the underworld/queen of the underground. What a pair we are, the earth-shaker and the dread goddess. We are the Dreamers. We are the incestuous twins who never have sex. We are Theo and Isabel, joined at the brain. We are Richie and Margot. "I think we're just going to have to be secretly in love and leave it at that," as Ruby Tuesday plays in the background. Both under, but both right where we should be.

I eventually get back to the world of the living, but I remain divided. I am the only goddess who dies. I am the one who sees the finite nature of it all. (Well, me and Paul
Bowles...) Yet onward I stride, leaving flora and life in my wake. I carry this knowledge with me always and I still come back for more. I stand at the edge of the earth and blow a kiss into the waves, hoping the ripple reaches you. From the shore I still cannot find you, but I am able to smile my secret knowing smile.

Somehow or other, we all get our happy endings. the stars come out, and then the sun, and Van the man sings "Everyone, everyone, everyone." Old Miss Hamilton will never know our epic. No one will but us.