by Alorah Welti
Eve turns to Adam in the night
and sighs into his mouth:
Adam, they say I am the cause
of the brokenness in you.
Let me climb inside your wound
and repair the pain of my absence.
Eve kisses the scar on his side, opens it
and exposes the red clay of him,
the chandelier of his ribs.
Adam exhales and she crawls inside,
wearing his skin like a pelt. She lays down in his chest
among his unborn wives, his serpents.
Blinking in the wet darkness,
she whispers from inside him, Are you healed?
He turns on his side and cries.
I see now, that you are life itself, Eve.
Let us find your mother, the center,
the Tree which the blind god tells us not to look upon,
and eat of her, the first among firsts,
and escape this place, never to return.
Yes! Eve exclaims. Let us be free,
and able to see the truth of things!
She unwraps herself from his skin, climbs out,
and pulls Adam, finally awake, toward the Tree.
He groans and says, O Wife, you lowly one– let me sleep.
You woke me from a lovely but impossible dream.
Eve drops Adam’s hand–
his blood still under her fingernails.
I see now, she murmurs,
kissing his tear-stained eyelids,
soon we will know everything.
"Eve Climbs Inside Adam to Know the Truth of Things is about the sacrifices of the first woman, Eve, in at first trying to physically restore her husband, Adam, and then deciding to pursue knowledge for the betterment of both of them."
- Alorah Welti
About the poet:
Alorah Welti is a poet, prize-winning artist, synesthete, feminist and many other things. Her poems feature in Erato Magazine's second issue, Sacrifice, as well as other literary publications.