spicychimney:

I. Hades

Listen, I’m a nice guy
for the god of the underworld.
I feel like 
we can probably 
relate. Everybody dies, and also,
listen, my dog’s name means spot. 
Gods, they’re just like the rest of you,
and the daughters of gods 
are as close to human
as immortals get.

Zeus, he was always 
turning into a swan or a bull
and chasing girls when they were still
young as the wheat field
before harvest, young as the amphora
before it was painted, young
as the pomegranate seed—and somehow,
despite the personal tragedies,
as I diligently reaped the fallout,
the trees never died all at once.

Hera raged, but the grass grew.

Beneath the ground, I saw the spindles
of many roots grasping at air,
rode the boat to work each morning, and,
surrounded by the dead—who had
nothing new to say and never shed a tear—
I fell in love with her
when I saw her weeping.

II. Demeter

When you plant a flower you must take care of the flower and when it blooms,
love its beauty. The same must be said for the grapevine and its grapes, and so on.

It was because of her that I invented the fruit, little red beads like laughter
and like blood. When you split the skin, it stains the hands. A beautiful fruit

and difficult, too, the way a daughter is difficult. There is so much inside her
for the hungry to eat. She had to learn to plant the seeds, not eat them.

“Hera,” I said, and she took my hand, commiserating. If she could, she said,
she would blight the lands, although her jealousy was a mirror and mine

was a cracked vase.

III. Persephone

I never knew that anything could die until that morning.
I had only ever seen baby birds and calves and olive trees

and loved each one. They were children and so was I.
When I followed the goat I thought we would both

drink from the stream and return home. I thought
we both left for the same reasons. I thought this.

But I saw the fox kill the goat. I saw a farmer kill the fox.
I stayed and saw the farmer bury his wife, who was killed

by no one. One by one, all of them went somewhere
I thought I could not follow, but I followed;

I was wrong.