(After God Herself)

Adam ate an apple

it got stuck in his throat

and they called him Eve

the progenitor

the creator of all things

the mother of strength

and fortitude

and sadness

Adam ate an apple

choked on it so hard

a rib popped out of his chest

and they called it Eve

the progenitor

the creator of all things

the mother of strength and fortitude

and sadness

it takes the hacking of a body

to make a woman

Adam hacking up a piece of his body

it was just a piece of fruit

they called me fruit once too

they called me fruity

before they called me flaming

before they called me faggot

before they called me woman

i thought i would have

to hack this body into pieces

woman, a name stuck in my throat

right under the apple Adam tried to eat

choked on it for years

waited for my ribs to pop out

my chest to explode

for my Eve to be created

from the fruit i couldn’t swallow

they called me fruit once

until they called me woman

and then they just called me fruitless

as if it took a womb to be

progenitor

creator

mother of all things

strength and fortitude and sadness

they reckon God looked

at the image of herself

and called it Adam

they still don’t call me woman

they still don’t birth me Eve

even though they cast me out

my throat shrunken close

with the fruit still stuck in it

like Adam

before they called him Eve

and suddenly i am a stranger

to Eden

i am a stranger to this body

as if it hadn’t always been mine

i reckon God looked

at the image of herself

and called it me

but i don’t know if that

was before or after the apple

before or after Adam choked

which came first

the progenitor or the mother

the apple or the rib

the strength or the sadness

this body was God’s original creation

but they called it sin

they called it Adam

I reckon God looked

at the image of  herself

and called Adam Eve

after she choked on his name

some fruit that bloomed

in everyone else’s throat

but she could never quite swallow

the fall of man was an apple

hacked up from a fruitless body

a woman learning what evil was

like a man forcing his name upon you

the fall of man was a rib

being torn from a chest

and men calling that violence holy

naming a woman based only

on the body parts she’s made of

the fall of man

was the beginning of Eve

Eve casting out Adam’s name

Eve discovering who she was

the progenitor

the creator of all things

the mother of strength

and fortitude

and sadness

the fall of man

was Eve becoming a woman

with or without Eden’s approval

and now

every time someone

tries to call her Adam

tries to force the apple

of his name down her throat

she laughs

she swallows

she looks at God herself

and she smiles