Eve’s Contemplations on Ordering from the Menu
at the Paradise Buffet
Jennifer Matthews
It was the life “before shame,” but
not before annoyance. Let’s just say
Adam had his quirks.
Kept reminding me that
he was made in God’s image
and I was just taken
from Man’s rib.
I sometimes wonder
(in my less pious hours) if
that pecking order
was the reason I was the one
picking the fruit.
So what would you do
if you were the “help mate”
to some guy who hands down
messages from God and
the only other thing that talks to you
is this walking snake that swears
you won’t die
from eating apples,
but,
will instead receive
the wisdom of the Gods.
You eat
and offer some to Adam
(hearing no protests)
but when the Big Guy comes around
is the first to point his finger!
Listen,
even worse
than the pain of childbirth and
sorrows multiplied for my “faux pas”
is knowledge.
Knowing that God said I’d die,
but I didn’t.
Knowing that the Serpent said I’d be wiser
and I Am.
--
previously published in a Women’s Studies departmental journal
