Mother Love is a collection of loose sonnets I'll call them,
which are based on the Persephone and Demeter myth.
And so I will read to you one, but maybe two, depending.
I always make a list and then I tear it up
when I get up here so.
But I will start with this one, as you
know that Demeter, or Persephone,
was the daughter who strayed from the group
and was snapped up by the god of the underworld.
"The Narcissus Flower."
"I remember my foot in its frivolous slipper, a frightened
bird.
Not the Earth unzipped, but the way I could see my own fingers
and hear myself scream as the blossom incinerated.
And though nothing could chasten the plunge,
this man adamant as a knife, easing
into the humblest crevice.
I found myself at the center of a calm, so pure, it was hate.
The mystery is you can eat fear before fear eats you,
you can live beyond dying and become a queen
whom nothing surprises."