The Spirits of Clairvoyance

Within you is the woman, Persephone, who struggled

on the floor of the deep woods and then was lost

like childhood. Tonight she rises through the cavern,

her hair the colors of sun and moon setting at once.

Persephone is within us, her hands held forward

as in an attitude of prayer, waking and sleeping,

first one struggle then the other: a struggle in which

her mother is the other, beyond her grasp now,

looking on as if ourselves viewing the weather.

Her daughter stares within the eyes of Demeter,

and within shadow has knowledge of the invisible

king, Hades, who watches, yearning for the light.