by:Anjali,Muskan and Sambit
have an epiphany of bewitched infamy.
In Greece, they call him Aidoneus.
You’d better know him as the god of the underworld,
Perhaps Persephone’s captor would ring a bell?
If not, then I’d like to thank the oblivion,
that clouds your otherwise caviling eyes.
if you are aware of Demeter’s rampage,
her frowning in the season of harvest,
you’d perhaps know the story she narrates.
The tale which vilifies hades as the perpetrator
Fear not, for I’ve made that mistake as well.
I’ve painted Aidoneus in black without a doubt.
But by mere chance, I met Persephone in my demise.
She sat on the throne alongside her beloved.
Flabbergasted, yet I asked her.
‘Isn’t this the man that claimed you by deceit?’
And she looked at me as if I had daggered her heart.
‘So you’ve heard my mother’s story like countless others?’
And a petty me stood in silence and let her speak.
Her magnificence captivating me in bewitching awareness
‘ I was a little girl who couldn’t find her way through the meadow.
Sure, I was the daughter of Demeter but nothing more.
Light and color blinded my soul in this unsettling hue.
As the daughter of Demeter, nature should have captivated my soul.’
Yet, I felt that nature wasn’t all that I found beautiful.
There was this hollow craving that had consumed my morrow.
Chained by newfound expectations of being the perfect daughter,
I wandered away from duties I dare not neglect again. ‘
And with raging thoughts and newfound desires,
I stumbled across the gateway to my heaven. Dare you say hell.
And I walked into this land without a doubt,
You’d say hades found me, but I’d argue that it was my will
and mother was just a frightened lady worried by my absence.
But I neglected my duty and failed long back in the past.
I will no longer hate myself. I can never bring myself to hate her.
Let me pause and ask your queries. I’ve spoken for way too long.
But I shook my head, deliberately asking her to continue.
I did not have the heart to ask any questions.
The lovers glanced at each other, and I sighed,
hoping for this love that I could never have.
But it felt nice to know that I’d heard their story before my end.
I’d pass on to my next life with a treasure buried in my heart.
I’ll take your silence as my cue to continue.
And in one rapid breath, finish this before I tend to my work.
Aidoneus fell for my enchanting beauty at first glance
‘Fairly presumptuous,’ Hades jokingly interrupted.
And the entire room erupted in appreciation of his uncanny humor.
Persephone gently glared at him before she continued.
But it wasn’t only him that fell. I fell in love with darkness.
entranced with the gentle caresses of his actions
and then the lovers glanced at each other again.
I could only fawn from a distance.
Persephone embraced a stoic expression before continuing.
Mother found out, and she wasn’t slightly happy.
People were starving and facing the wrath of my love,
Hermes had asked for me to go back to mother.
And so I begged Hades to find a way to let me stay.
He gave me the six pomegranate seeds, which mother curses to date.
I ate them without a doubt with hopes of seeing the man I love again.
And then I went to earth and met my dear mother again.
Persephone took in a deep breath before she continued.
And mother didn’t believe in love with the devil as she called him.
So she painted my love that way, A tale of monstrous manipulation.
I understand my mother, but she doesn’t understand me.
She doesn’t see that I’m not held captive in the underworld;
I am the queen of this land instead. I am more brutal than my man.
‘And I can vouch for that,’ Hades subtly speaks again.
This time the two lovers stare at each other for a while
‘But she is my light, and it will always be that way,’ he continues.
And they both look at each other like people new in love would.
I couldn’t disturb this affectionate moment that i behold,
and so I quietly left knowing that the rain embodied the pain of their separation.