The funeral offerings by a sepulcher for Eternity to a soul departed,
Crossing the River of the Styx to the gate of the Underworld,
Paying a fee to Charon for carrying the soul of the departed,
For without it, he will refuse to let him board his ferryboat indeed,
And the soul will wander around the shore for a hundred years stupefied
By Eternal Slumber in the amidst of the laments sung by those left behind
Until they are heard no more, seen no more, believed no more, and banished
Into the ancient all with his shattered dreams shuddered with fear – all in nil ended,
Are burnt in the funeral pyre as the embers spirit away in great red.
In the sound of silence
The phone breaks silence,
The numbers on the screen
Don’t tell me anything;
In the simulation of anticipations,
A concatenation of awry expectations,
I pick up the phone with hesitations
then listen to the silence of the caller
Vanishing into the electronic ether.
Veiled in the ancient shrine of the mysteries,
Robed in the esoteric knowledge of Olympus,
There appeared a numinous woman on the altars
Of a great temple built by Keleos, King of Eleusis
At the instruction of Demeter, the disguised goddess
Presiding over grains and the fertility of earth in distress,
For her daughter Persephone, deflowered by Hades,
The god of the Underworld was still retained in Hades.
The tale of woes so lachrymose with her eyes so dolorous
With the tears of the goddess welled with pains of heartaches
Began as Demeter called Keleos and other priests by the altars,
All of whom were equally intoxicated by her divine humanities
Of Anguish, Despondency, Dolefulness, and even Wretchedness
And listened to the elegy of their goddess of sacred grains
Of earth where now was barren and fallow for she was without grace .
“My daughter Persephone, the apple of my eyes, Flower of Flowers
On earth was ruthlessly ravaged by Hades, that dreadful Hades,
Of the Underworld, who then abducted her to his realm of darkness
Where only shadowy spirits wander with eyes depraved of lights,
Where the shadowy spirits importune for drops of blood for prophecies
To those a few mortals of valor destined for performing heroic feats.
There, Persephone, my beautiful daughter, was bound to Hades,
Who was also a brother of Zeus, god of gods, the ruler of the Universe,
Who was also an accomplice of this great crime, this god of gods!
Alas! Where’s Justice? Where’s Nemesis? Where’s God of the Universe
When this god of gods connived at his brother’s crime and sealed the mouths
Of other gods and goddesses who were nothing but divine cowards?
Thus, I searched high and low for my dear Persephone for nine days,
And on the tenth day, Hecate, a daughter of Rhea, and the sun god Helios
Came to me, for their pangs of godly consciousness disturbed by the pathos
Of my grief and lamentation was more divine than their divine essences
To tell me the crime of Hades and where my Persephone was that was
Hard to bear, harder to believe when my divineness was betrayed in Olympus,
Where all but I, the goddess of grains and fertility on earth was left amiss!
Thereupon, I fled Olympus, the ghastly place of godly beings in idleness
Who were nothing but abductors of fair maidens, manipulators of wars,
And conspirators of jealousy, all of it was against my nature and sacred office
With righteous contempt for all of it, I left that place of lewdness,
With no regrets, but with a longing heart for my Persephone in darkness.
Into this land of Eleusis, your land of Eleusis I wandered with hopes
Of meeting my Persephone one day as an old slave woman in disguise
Named Doso and met your wife by an old well near your splendid house
Where I became a burse to your son whom I fed ambrosia at nights
For Eternal Youth and put in the center of fire for Immortality, my Graces
To your kindly family till your wife full of foolish speculations
Betrayed my sacred appreciation and divine intentions and thwarted your son’s
Gifts of Eternal Youth and Immortality, the essence of the Immortals in Olympus!
Here, you built me my temple in honor of me, to initiate the Eleusinian Mysteries,
My Persephone will also preside for her four months’ stay on earth from Hades,
Alluring her to eat four pomegranate seeds, so she can’t stay here in bliss
For ever, forever with me, when the land will abound with crops and flowers,
And when you will purify yourselves with nine days of fasting and celibacy
with a consecration of the first grain harvested first of the year for the rites
In honor of me and Persephone, the goddess of spring of blissful liveliness.
Thus was a tale of the goddess, who was the goddess of humanities in essence,
Who was the goddess of the Eleusinian Mysteries with full of arcane principles
Of Purity, Morality, and Humanity, sealed in ancient secret rites so mysterious,
With sacrosanct pledges of select a few mortals mystified by the Mysteries
That would elevate the excitement of the souls and the passion of the hearts
Like no other in this world and in that world, afterlife where the spirits
In bliss promenading in the Eleusinian Fields boundless into the Mystic Universe.
Over the relics of the marvels that belonged once
To a sacred dwelling of a Lunar Goddess, a divine
Maiden of Wild Beauty and Eternal Chastity destined
To chase the wild from dawn till dusk with her golden
Arrows missing nothing even from the top of Olympus,
A High Moon spoke with full of pathos of her immortal story.
“I once lived on the isle of Sicily with Athena and Persephone,
Gathering flowers in the Elysian Fields during the days,
Weaving our father Zeus’ robe at nights under the Moon and Stars
Enjoying our muliebrity unscathed by the lust of amorous men
Whose lascivious desire of women would forever be inordinate,
Spurning Eros, Aphrodite, Songs of Love, and Bliss of Marriages.”
“Then heard was no more; a mirth of our Persephone was heard
Nowhere, for Hades, the god of Underworld, swiftly abducted her
In his chariot and disappeared into the pit of the world down under,
Where I and Athena could not penetrate even with our divine aide,
Ending the blissful companionship of sisterhood for once for all – forever!
And thus I left the isle in quest of eternal pursuit of wild beasts alone.”
“Immune from the spells of Aphrodite and the arrows of Eros,
I am an eternal maiden who is free from marital obligations
So that I can chase down wild beasts with my ever loyal hunting
Companions of a Bear, A Wolf, and a Stag behind me all day long
And dispense my vengeful justice to all devoid of decency and civility,
Like the ones who were cruel to my mother, my brother, and me!
Such was the litany of woes told by a Goddess of the Moon
On a night when a Full High Moon filled the night alone,
Shining brightly alone above a lonely traveler listening to her
Tale of her divine destiny of solitude chasing her objects of
Pleasure for ever- forever continuing till her father Zeus takes
Away her immortality in pity and makes her a star next to Orion.
Flame, Glass and Ink are Poems, essays, and reading notes by Stefania Joori Suh 
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