her lovely red hair falling
to her waist as she asked,
wide-eyed and innocent,
‘What are you saying?’
I swallowed the hot tears
at the back of my throat.
I was going to break her heart.
And then I would break
Demeter’s heart too.
‘I… I am sorry.
I was supposed to take you home.
But the condition was
that you had not eaten
a single thing in
the land of the dead.’
There was an awful silence.
And then the girl let out
a terrible cry of despair.
Her hand picked up the plate
and she smashed it
to pieces across the floor.
She sank to her knees
and we stood there
helpless, unable to do anything
but watch
as rivers of misery
flowed down the girl’s face.
A Voice in the Darkness
It startled us all…
The sound of a deep abyss
