Sorting the Seeds

I cannot take her to my bed
No cries of joy shall slaughter dread
Shrieking thing, get out! Fall dead!
'Tis not your house but mine instead.

Ungrateful wretch, she says to me
She wraps my hair around times three
And chokes and spits and binds to see
My house that's not my own

I saw him through the window there
No face saw I, but golden hair
He hides from me what I lay bare
And whispers to me of mine own house

No home is this in which to stay
That monster shall not go away
My lips can't move to speak nor pray
He watches still, outside my house

She pleads and begs and snidely mocks
Not I but he outside those locks
A fool, she cries, whose constant knocks
Fall on deaf ears outside my house

But wait, says he, through window there
These three tasks you bravely bear
You cannot think I do not care
But desire to take you from this house

His face I see by lantern's light
Through the curtain of her spite
And love him, I do, despite the blight
Of the monster in this house

He speaks again, of love and trust
The monster bites and fight I must
That gaping maw, that fatal thrust
He still will speak outside my house

I know, says he, of tasks of three
You did them all, and all for me
A fourth shall still remain for thee
For I have helped you in this house

The first of these, to sort the seeds
I sent those ants to fill your needs
I know of how your heart still bleeds
To join with me outside this house

The second, says he, to find the reed
Who guided you to fill thy need.
You clever girl! You've won, indeed.
Who says you will not leave this house?

Tell me true and quick, my dear
What task was third for love and fear?
A river runs too far, too near
To appease the demon in the house.

What water, I ask, did I bring?
That which came from Death's dark spring?
Shall He now come a-caroling?
It would be most fitting for this house.

He leans in close, and says to me
The fourth is harder still, you see
That beauty of fair Persephone
Will be yours outside that house

No, I cry, to Love it goes!
It is She who asks for what She knows
I cannot do for Her, or those
Who would see me buried in this house

Ah, he counters, you dwell above
To the Underworld you must go, my love
You will be no flower or darling dove
Until you leave her in this house

I weep and beg and still he speaks
Fear not, dear one, of darkened peaks
On Hades' mountain, nor of creeks
That feed the Styx outside your house.

You mother wins, I say to him
A fool, a slave to love's sole whim
To watch me suffer, weak and grim
I cannot ever leave this house

She and I, mother and son
Cannot win what won't be won
For I am what you seek and shun
He says to me inside this house.

Beware! Beware! She waits for thee
I tell to him whose held to me
No love of mine is worth the fee
You must pay the monster in this house.

A kiss he gives, upon my brow
Sweet sleep, he says, shall take you now
But I am with you here, and how
I long to smite this monstrous house.

No more I know, till Death is nigh
I hear his voice, and then I sigh
My darling love, I didn't cry
As that black fog destroyed my house.

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