The Persephone Room

Sarah Wallis

 

See the stucco walls in pale washed pink,

thin lines of trees raised up in silhouette

and dotted precious

with bright, gold, pomegranates,

 

spaced in time like planets, and set

to spin out the seasons of a hollow promise,

secret wedding banns posted,

the gold glinting and delicate balanced branches

 

seen by a candlelight set supper, ever a trick

to catch a girl on a darkling promise

of living in a different time, 

another space, the room glimmers a threat

 

of change in the weather, shower of sparks

priming a cosy catch, romance spicing the dark.

 

And somewhere over and above adventuring,

 

the keen of a mother’s six-month spaced grief.

 

 

 

***

Sarah Wallis is a poet and playwright based in Scotland, UK. Recent work is at Trampset, Lunate and Ellipsis online and in print journals Finished Creatures and The Alchemy Spoon. A chapbook, “Medusa Retold,” is available from @fly_press and she tweets @wordweave.