Kept by the Underworld I Wanted

An earlier piece that deserves to be seen: TBIN Writing Prompt

No sad Demeter wrings her hands and wails Over me. Awake where I should sleep I stayed and would not settle for A thin count of rubies. Plucked Ripe gems from her pocket ’til yellowing trees could produce no more bright fruit For my palm.

A prompt from the mighty Lucy Dan 蛋小姐 (she/her/她) inspired me to fetch “one piece you wrote earlier that deserves to be seen.” The Etheree above is stitched together with patches re-dyed and torn from the original poem.

At the time it published, I was unknown to the Medium Community with only a few dozen followers. For all the reasons you can imagine, I was excited to hop into #PoetrySunday with my very first byline in PS I Love You.

Few readers happened to see Descended — it’s been collecting dust for months as I let the silence train me into thinking it might have been more of a miss than a hit. Wiser now, I realize I did little to give the poem context and had no community around to shine light in its direction.

Fresh eyes, new friends and eager readers invited!

Descended is written through an Irish poet’s voice, a man who is becoming aware he’s under a spell much like Persephone was in Hades. Unlike the girl whose mother wailed and bargained for her release, he recognizes no one is coming to his rescue. And he’s glad. Where he is — in this space however obscure and confusing — this is where he wants to be.

Laurie Perez is about to scurry down into her writing cave to work on finishing a novel. After dipping toes back in this week, she’s a bit shaken from the focus and has a lot to catch up on in the book. Assuming she endures, she’ll be back in the Medium groove again sometime around the Autumnal Equinox in late September. ✨🍭 She thanks you for taking a bite out of Descended when you have a poetic minute to spare!

What’s a piece you wrote back then that deserves new light? Follow the guidelines in this prompt from The Brain is a Noodle!