Lucas Powers’ most recent poem to appear here was “Mountaineer” (March 2017)

December Advice
By Lucas Powers

If you ever
Happen to die
And go someplace
Deep—

Do not eat the
pomegranate—
And for god’s sake
Don’t swallow
Its seeds

Persephone
Found out
The hard way—
There’s no easy
Way out of hell

Those seeds
Take root in
The Belly
Darkly blossoming
Like blackvines
Into short days
And long shadows
With the surest grip
Of purest nothingness
More supreme
Than sleep