The Six-Part Symmetry of Desire

by calenlily

Summary:

Think me not a plucked flower

Notes:

• For lnhammer.

For years I lived a dream

A perfumed haze of summer

Safe and comfortable and cloying sweet

The end was abrupt

The earth opening, the chariot's thunder

It was like being jolted awake

Lost and terrified but, gods, I'd never been so alive

Think me not a plucked flower

Under the earth, I grew

No more the eternal maiden, I bloomed

I took the pain with the pleasure, the tart with the sweet

As the tang of pomegranate blossomed on my tongue

I fell back on a bed of asphodel

Ghost-white petals veined with fire

And the same fire coursed through my veins

Think me not a plucked flower

Wilting and despoiled

The earth has ever been of my domain

And I grew strong

Notes:

The title comes from the fact that narcissus, asphodel, and pomegranate blossoms all have six petals, which I find perhaps more fascinating than is really warranted.

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 3 of Songs for Persephone