Pantoublock with Persephones and Milk Cartons by Seth Leeper

History is a matter of course-correcting all the mistakes of men

Pantoublock with Persephones and Milk Cartons

by Seth Leeper

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Lost is the wrong word for abduction.  Before you died, I wrote a book.
All  the  characters  were  Persephone. The  settings  spanned  fields, old
dirt  roads, and  abandoned  parking  lots.  As a  child I slept by a locked
window  a  45  minute  drive  from  where Polly Klaas was taken. Before
you   died,  I   wrote   a   book.   All  the   characters   were   looking   for
Persephone.  Demeter  put  on  her  death mask until her trifling brother
returned  her  daughter. As  a  child  I  slept  with  a thin blanket draped
over me at  the foot of your bedroom door.  History is a matter of course
-correcting  all  the  mistakes  of  men.  Demeter  put  on her death mask
until  Hades  brought  Persephone  back  as  a  spring  child  who’d  been
poisoned  with  winter. I knew  you’d protect me and my sister.  We each
chose  an  ankle  to  cling to. History  is a matter of course-correcting all
the  misdeeds  of  men. Polly  was  not  returned  to  her  mother  in  any
discernible  shape. I  knew  you’d  protect  me  and  my  sister  even  if  it
meant scaling  the many  steps down to hell yourself. Lost boys and girls
littered   the  sides  of  Sunday  morning  milk  cartons,  their  faces  grey
and    monochrome   against   the   plastic-coated,   shiny   white   paper.
Polly had a theater  erected in her name and in every play they reenacted
the Eleusian mysteries. When the Reaper came to affix your death mask,
his  feet  crunching dead  weeds,  we  wrestled  it  from  his  bony  hands.