Creation Stories
In the original, Adam has my back—
is my back—our bodies one
body. We take turns
walking forward. With each seeing
half the world, we see it
all: our minds a communal
well; our only blind spot,
the other’s face. When he is tired,
I sleep; when I am hungry,
he eats. But our hunger
ends there.
For him, for me, there is no need
for longing. You do not crave
your own elbow.
In the remake, we’re
separate. His eyes the color
of damp earth. To know his mind,
I must now ask questions; he gives me
a name so he can call for me. Language
is our first child. Rib of his cage,
face to my face, we are creative
in the ways we rebind ourselves. Again,
when I am hungry, he eats. Old habits
die hard. But he does know the rules. So
when I offer the fruit and he accepts
it means he marries me: makes
my death, his death; my future, ours.
Eden could have been his alone;
I am the paradise he chose.
ξ
"Creation Stories" was first published in The Massachusetts Review.
Jessica Jacobs is the author of Take Me with You, Wherever You're Going (Four Way Books), named one of Library Journal's Best Poetry Books of the year and winner of the Devil's Kitchen and Goldie Awards in Poetry; Pelvis with Distance (White Pine Press), winner of the New Mexico Book Award for Poetry and a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award; and Write It! 100 Poetry Prompts to Inspire (Spruce Books/Penguin RandomHouse), which she co-authored with her wife, Nickole Brown. Other poems from this collection have appeared or are forthcoming in Orion, New England Review, Ecotone, Copper Nickel, and The Mississippi Review. She lives in Asheville, NC, and serves as the Chapbook Editor of Beloit Poetry Journal. Online: https://jessicalgjacobs.com/
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