<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body dir="auto"><div><span></span></div><div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;">How She Works</div><div style="margin: 0px; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>for Donna</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;"><br></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;">She is Persephone with no</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;">Demeter to rescue her. Above</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;">is always winter. Inside the cave</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;">she calls her office,</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;">she is a schizophrenic talking</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;">to the voices that enter her head.</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;">Disembodied voices chatter in her ears,</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;">she chats to the bodiless. Her disembodied</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;">voice climbs into their ears wherever</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;">they might be in their caves</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;">they call offices.</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;"><br></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;">She is hungry for more</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;">than pomegrantes, craves poetry,</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;">oysters and ripe stuffed olives.</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;"><br></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;">At night she dreams</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"> if she sleeps.</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;">She dreams of something she cannot</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;">imagine and so it has no name.</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;">Tight ripe buds push like crowning</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;">babies birthing into bright, electric air.</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;">Thin shoots of palest green</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;">wiggle and thrust through dark, amazed</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;">earth. Because she is blind</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;">she cannot name the colors. There are</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;">so many, no one could name them.</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;"><br></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;">She dreams of Spring.</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;">She dreams of breathing.</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;">She dreams her mother is searching for her.</div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; min-height: 22px;"><br></div><div style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>- Rebecca del Rio</div></div></body></html>