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Two Queens
When the QE2 lies off East Chop
like a wayward glacier
Persephone hangs Old Glory
from the East Chop light
In the bright sun
Persephone's pennant flares;
her sisters are a brocade cloak
floating from her shoulders,
her children are golden threads,
her husband a gray cloud
Persephone opens the fissure
in the floor of the ocean,
summons rocks from the fissure,
draws ships to the rocks.
Persephone walks above the water
and below it, her feet sole to sole
treading the troughs of the waves.
Persephone casts her nets,
her nets stop the ships
When the moon is incomplete
Persephone is its dark side,
Persephone is the invisible curve
the eye draws to complete the circle;
Persephone's gravity rules the seas,
her temper is tidal
Persephone beckons to the hole in the ocean,
the heart of winter, and rest:
Bear me to your shadow kingdom;
there is no other course,
though nothing blooms for ever,
though ships go down and planes
go up in flames
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