"Pomegranates" by L. E. Daniels

Maybe
She fell in love with darkness
And we were not to know.
Secrets sank in tufted hills marbled to the bone while
Carried off, they said. Be careful. Rapuit.
Another pretty girl who drifted, carried away by gods.
 
But maybe she met his sullen gaze
Moments before Mother slipped between--
Offended by his tragic liminal spaces.
Calling him fragrant, bitter, dull, she plied
Her daughter away.
 
But maybe she sensed what spooled from his touch
And her unexpressed contours were moved.
He--witness to women reframed, coerced, cut down--
Received them with grave and tender care,
And grew wiser, more spacious for each.
 
Maybe he listened and she drew closer,
Slipping between her own bars,
Leaving her paintbrush of spring pastels
For swathes of Eleusian gold, indigo pinwheels,
The dove-gray train of incense curls he offered.
 
And maybe she feasted—both at his table and
In his bed—-in ways Mother would never understand;
Ravenous, chaffed, red-lipped--she lied
About eating only six pomegranate seeds.
Laughing--alone--he awaited her return to color his sheets.
 
Maybe she outgrew the porcelain mask of Kore,
Choosing queen and friend--not mother--
To those crushed by living;
To those exhausted from defending themselves.
Wordless, a softened glance is her only admission
Of freedom that blooms in the dark.

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​Bram Stoker Award® finalist, L. E. Daniels is an author/poet and the editor of over 140 titles. Lauren’s novel, Serpent’s Wake: A Tale for the Bitten (IP) is a Notable Work with the Horror Writers Association’s Mental Health Initiative. She edited Aiki Flinthart’s Relics, Wrecks and Ruins (CAT) with Geneve Flynn, winning the 2021 Aurealis Award. With Christa Carmen, Lauren edited the Aurealis finalist, We Are Providence (Weird House) and Monsters in the Mills (IP). Recent publications include “Silk” (Hush, Don’t Wake the Monster, Twisted Wing), "Darkness Repeats" (Monsters in the Mills, IP), and “Hangman’s Coming” (Where the Silent Ones Watch, Hippocampus). Her non-fiction, “Spooned by the Dead” appears in Out of Time: True Paranormal Encounters (Timber Ghost). Her poetry appears in This Way Lies Madness (Flame Tree), Cozy Cosmic and More Cozy Cosmic (Underland), and Under Her Eye and Mother Knows Best (Black Spot Books). Her poem, “Night Terrors” (HWA, Of Horror and Hope) was a 2022 Australasian Shadows Award finalist. She directs Brisbane Writers Workshop.
 
Links:
Website: https://www.brisbanewriters.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LEDanielsAuthor
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lauren_elise_daniels/
Bluesky: ledaniels.bsky.social
 

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