i dream in

scenes.

of a lost child,

grown up to be queen.

of cities upside down,

swarmed by machines.

the skies are burning,

the fire is green.

and then i wake up,

no more to be seen.

i want to sleep

but i can’t sleep a wink

do i need a shrink?

thinking in thoughts and lines

i need to take some time

off

i need to find an escape

a vacation

i need to find a way

to look away

i’m a castaway

stuck in the sea of my own thoughts

i’m on a dilapidated piece of wood

i’m on an iceberg in the middle of a flood

of thoughts

i’ve failed

now i’m drowning

in words

in thoughts

in letters

in colors

all mixing

i’m missing

the point of this madness

the end and beginning

is deliberately ditching me

i’m in the middle of nowhere

stuck

somewhere

out there

in there

my own brain

i can’t control

my feelings are all distraught

i’m caught in a knot

i’ve ought

to figure out that help is naught

i bought

myself into this mess

i’m a mess

in distress

call the ambulance

call the doctor

i need

to be looked after

because left alone

i’m like a dog

a stray

lost and wandering,

wondering

wanting

needing

some sort of help but receiving

none; nothing

because i’m nothing

i’m nothing

i’m nothing

n o t h i n g.

i need to stop thinking.

Persephone cupped the dying lily in her small, rosy palms. The patch of lily of the valley had wore out its blooms and bowed before the changing season. "Who is the god of Death?" she turned to her mother. The innocence in her raised eyebrows and wide green eyes made Persephone look young for her age. "You've spoken to me about all the other gods but him."

Demeter's sweet corn colored hair turned flint brown. "Hades is not like us, dear one. Not like you. Everything he touches will wither and die. He will never know life."

Dew drops formed in Persephone's eyes, glistening like diamonds under the spring noon sun. "He sounds awfully lonely." Her sadness lingered in the air, a sillage like the scent of orange blossoms on the wind.

"Think on him no more," her mother sliced through the wind and the reverie. Demeter bustled about, sowing the earth nearby with summer crops and flora. She shook her head one more time at Persephone before bustling off to the next patch of field.

Persephone turned her attention back to the dead lily, and wondered about the man, who had stolen its life. She imagined a dark sort of man, wrapped in a coat of the crinkling, decaying leaves of wilted lilies. She thought of him, perhaps standing under the earth, beneath her body, as she laid in the grass. Maybe he secretly yearned for the warmth of a growing thing. Persephony brushed her fingers over the eart,h her goddess powers swirling sparkles around her fingers.

Another lily began to grow, this one pink and spotted and fragrant. But unlike the other flowers that Persephone tended, she only saw the roots growing. Instead, the flower stretched downward, deep into the belly of the earth. A glimmer of life and color glowed in the underworld, hovering above the outstretched hand of Hades. He marveled at it, delicate and beautiful like the giver. His black dead eyes flashed with life, and then turned upward. They seemed to pierce through the earth, to gaze at Perseephone. And then, surprising himself, he smiled, not feeling lonely any more.

.

I liked how he took care of his queen as I caught glimpses of him, showing her around his lands, new places of the kingdom that she hasn’t seen yet.

It was soothing to see that kind of love, full of affection and protectiveness. So pleasing to witness with my own eyes... that it wasn’t just made belief, a storyteller’s dream,

but something real, so close that you could practically feel and touch it for yourself.

I liked how he took care of his queen.

.