If I am Hades, my char’iot splintered
When I met you; my cold bones ignited
With heat, bright, that in my chest had wintered
Through storms of cities, my own heart blighted.
Your fingers’ warmth, your sighs, I’d sew them here—
Imprinting flesh and bone with golden thread,
So they might linger beyond half the year
When only cooling shadows grace my bed.
Now seeded in me and fast consuming
The fertile heartground I’d not known I had,
This lust for sunlight, rebel’iously blooming
Is enough to drive a conqueror mad—
Fool enough to wish a kingdom away,
I would swallow death whole to make you stay.

(Editors’ Note: “For the Gardener’s Daughter” is read by Amal El–Mohtar in the Uncanny Magazine Podcast, Episode 4A.)

© 2015 by Alyssa Wong