Pomegranates

My mother found pomegranates

in Kansas

for us to eat. She separated the blood-red

seeds out and placed them in bowls.

We sat with our short legs outstretched

on the floor in front of the TV

with towels tucked into our t-shirts.

Pomegranate juice stains.

We ate the hard and cold seeds

with spoons, my sister and I, while

Mom told the story of Persephone

and her mother, Ceres; how

the seasons are because Ceres

loved her daughter so much that

she could not bear to be without her

so let nothing grow or produce.

I was careful not to let the seeds

fall; I swallowed the seeds after

sucking the juice;

I wondered what Persephone’s

life was like in the Underworld

and if she missed her mother.