The Myth of Ophephone and Atlantis by Amanda N. Butler

O, sweet Ophephone,
how I go against
the wishes of your mother,
fruitful Demeter,
in remembering your name,
in recording your name,
the name removed from scrolls –
in this, I salvage your legacy.

O, loving Ophephone,
who fell in love
with a mortal fisherman,
a man doomed to fall
in the nets of Poseidon.

O, weeping Ophephone,
too anchored with grief
to answer our prayers
from your crumbled temple,
too saddened to tend summers
after the springs of your sister.

O, sunken Ophephone,
tricked to the center of Atlantis
by Zeus and his heavenly court,
trapped in rising waters,
your eternal cage.

O, recollected Ophephone,
through these words
will your immortality
be partnered with memory – 
may you find solace
in this knowledge – 
you have loved,
you have been loved,
and you are loved, still.

May this chorus of one
sail over your waters.

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Amanda N. Butler is the author of chapbooks “Tableau Vivant” (Dancing Girl Press, 2015) and “effercrescent” (Dancing Girl Press, 2017) as well as “How a Fairy Gets Her Wings” (Origami Poetry Press, 2018). Her poems have been published in Haikuniverse, Hedgerow, Leaves of Ink, and others. She is the Poet Laureate of Oldsmar, FL and can be found on Twitter @arsamandica.