Purchase Persephone on the Metro
By: Wendy Taylor Carlisle

Published 2013 by Mad Hat Publishing

Purchase Price: $7.95

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FIFTH LABOR
 
If you want a different story, you swing
the mop. What I remember is the weight

of nights and their particulars, sunrise
as a mist before the day slid over us,

lifting like an indigo balloon, striped
to amuse the limbic part of the brain that

sees a lover through the window, gone up
the gravel path with the noble rattle and

crunch of a serious journey, his canteen
swaying. But for me there’s something prissy

about talking like this without mentioning
the dirt and residue, listing the leftovers:

greasy knife, stained linens—when I know later
if I want the place clean, I move the river.