DEMETER TO PERSEPHONE

     by Alicia Ostriker

I watched you walking up out of that hole
All day it had been raining
in that field in Southern Italy
rain beating down making puddles in the mud
hissing down on rocks from a sky enraged
I waited and was patient
finally you emerged and were immediately soaked
you stared at me without love in your large eyes
that were filled with black sex and white powder
but this is what I expected and when I embraced you
Your firm little breasts against my amplitude
Get in the car I said
and then it was spring

Alicia's book, The Book of Seventy (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2009) can be ordered toll-free at 800-621-2736

THE BLESSING OF THE OLD WOMAN, THE TULIP AND THE DOG

     by Alicia Ostriker

To be blessed
said the old woman
is to live and work
so hard
God’s love
washes right through you
like milk through a cow
To be blessed
said the dark red tulip
is to knock their eyes out
with the slug of lust
implied by
your up-ended
skirt
To be blessed
said the dog
is to have a pinch
of God
inside you
and all the other dogs
can smell it

Alicia's book, The Book of Seventy (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2009) can be ordered toll-free at 800-621-2736