The Kidnapping
Last year she was in El Salvador.
Somehow she is here.
The teacher says she is Persephone.
She has flowers.
She is wrapped in a sheet
and she is not uncomfortable
with saying or being
in Hell.
The sheet tangles, her hair woven, fused to the flowers.
I hold up a fruit laden with seeds
encased in thick syrup.
I explain that if you eat you have to stay,
but only six months here
and six months there.
Now she is shocked.
The idea ricochets
as she contemplates borders passed,
bargains, anger, fatigue,
violation,
a cycle of eating and failure,
picking yourself up
and more falling.
It was hard enough just to get here.
About the Poet:
Maggie Rosen lives in Silver Spring, Maryland. Most of her professional work has been as a teacher of English to speakers of other languages. Her chapbook, The Deliberate Speed of Ghosts, will be published in 2016 by Red Bird Chapbooks.
Photo by Susanne Dicke.
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