Whose sweet leaves,
This green hair —
Where has she gone?
I saw her on that riverbank,
Lusted
Pursued
— there never was a sweeter chase —
I heard her call out her father’s name.
“Save me!”
That devil, that river-god, that tyrant,
Peneius who loves not love —
Whose magics these are which have
Torn my Daphne away?
No woman born should dare so much,
This disappearance —
Cassandra I punished,
Calliope I loved,
Coronis bore my son.
But this jewel, this prize —
How did I lose her?
I might well wear willow-weeds
(Disconsolate),
But instead I gather emerald fronds,
Lovers’-token,
Almost-what if-might have been —
And weave them for my brow
Her silk, entwined,
Not golden wreath for a locket’s heart,
But verdant chaplet for my diadem:
Such hollow victory crown.

[Jennifer Lawrence likes the fey and the strange, which explains most of her friends. Her interests include gardening, herbalism, mythology and fairy tales, theology, Celtic music, role-playing games, horror movies, and the martial arts. Her work has appeared in numerous publications, including Aphelion, Jabberwocky 4, Cabinet Des Fees, Goblin Fruit, and the Bibliotheca Alexandrina anthology Unbound: A Devotional Anthology in Honor of Artemis. She lives with her husband, her younger daughter, five cats, a dog, and a houseful of gargoyles somewhere near Chicago.]