The Pomegranate by Eavan Boland

<p>Production and Sound Design by Kevin Seaman</p><p> </p><p>The Pomegranate</p><p>By Eavan Boland</p><p>The only legend I have ever loved is</p><p>the story of a daughter lost in hell.</p><p>And found and rescued there.</p><p>Love and blackmail are the gist of it.</p><p>Ceres and Persephone the names.</p><p>And the best thing about the legend is</p><p>I can enter it anywhere. And have.</p><p>As a child in exile in</p><p>a city of fogs and strange consonants,</p><p>I read it first and at first I was</p><p>an exiled child in the crackling dusk of</p><p>the underworld, the stars blighted. Later</p><p>I walked out in a summer twilight</p><p>searching for my daughter at bed-time.</p><p>When she came running I was ready</p><p>to make any bargain to keep her.</p><p>I carried her back past whitebeams</p><p>and wasps and honey-scented buddleias.</p><p>But I was Ceres then and I knew</p><p>winter was in store for every leaf</p><p>on every tree on that road.</p><p>Was inescapable for each one we passed. And for me.</p><p>                   It is winter</p><p>and the stars are hidden.</p><p>I climb the stairs and stand where I can see</p><p>my child asleep beside her teen magazines,</p><p>her can of Coke, her plate of uncut fruit.</p><p>The pomegranate! How did I forget it?</p><p>She could have come home and been safe</p><p>and ended the story and all</p><p>our heart-broken searching but she reached</p><p>out a hand and plucked a pomegranate.</p><p>She put out her hand and pulled down</p><p>the French sound for apple and</p><p>the noise of stone and the proof</p><p>that even in the place of death,</p><p>at the heart of legend, in the midst</p><p>of rocks full of unshed tears</p><p>ready to be diamonds by the time</p><p>the story was told, a child can be</p><p>hungry. I could warn her. There is still a chance.</p><p>The rain is cold. The road is flint-coloured.</p><p>The suburb has cars and cable television.</p><p>The veiled stars are above ground.</p><p>It is another world. But what else</p><p>can a mother give her daughter