Thursday, November 23
EXILED, ADAM & HAWA LOOK INWARDS FOR OTHER ANSWERS
Frankly speaking, Adam could have
been anyone. In Norse
mythology they call him Askr
meaning ash tree meaning
fresh out of the shores. Too much
of light & there, you're blind.
Hawa too was guilty of that.
Guilty, like those women in old
Virginia who did nothing
but pick cotton
& steal glances
at the owner's books. Guilty
because knowledge, she was warned,
is a knife pointing
inwards. Despite the irony.
The holy book is not a perfect
guide for pun. O how Adam
sounds like A dam.
In science, I learn the human body
is made mostly of water. Tethered,
Adam & Hawa slid themselves
through the narrowest canal.
How many jokes we've had to make
about their own downfall.
As if the body, with all its hunger,
is not our original sin.
We tame it only as momentarily
as a horse tames its speed.
O Lord, like them, I want
to be something capable
of escape. For every wall, bless me
with a mallet.
If everything I want
hangs on
the other branch of fear, give m
ea Serpent with the smoothest
tongue. & forgive me.
& forgive me.
(Chiwenite Onyekwelu)