As Demeter

Is there a message in the stage lights 
or the chorus: what did Eurydice 
choose and how well did anyone love

anyone, back in those days. Modernization, 
is what I mean. Putting value on values.
The old story where a girl dies and dies 

and dies and it’s called love until it looks 
like love: waiting and starving. Work.
And then it’s always something else 

I’ve done or not done: transitioning 
to the mother, just out of sight, 
tending or neglecting a few seeds: Spring.  

Each year we turn the violets into syrup: 
treat the lawn. Invent conveniences: 
a poppy or a wound. 

Is it really that important 
to teach my daughter death 
is not a deep-voiced splendor.

SARA MOORE WAGNER

Sara Moore Wagner is the author of three prize-winning full-length books of poetry: Lady Wing Shot (2024), Swan Wife (2022), and Hillbilly Madonna (2022). Her poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in many journals and anthologies. In 2023, she became the managing poetry editor of Driftwood Press. Find her at www.saramoorewagner.com.