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Eve's Curse in Silence and Sorrow


by Katie Moore


Back in the way back I would have been so unclean

that you would have treated me

like a Goddess or the womb of the world all

while thinking you were just locking me away

for your purity's protection. My blood

could get your soul dirty, and we all bled

together so you shut us all up together

and together we weren't silent at all, but laughing

behind our drawn tent flaps, silken screens,

locked doors. To touch our skin was filthy,

to spread our legs a mortal sin. You closed

the keyholes to keep us apart, so we used them

to keep you out and keep our secrets to ourselves.

Laughing, cramping, moaning, spinning rivers

and oceans of stories, spilling bowlfuls

bright with red, staining cushions. They were ours

to stain. Then. But now we get no rest within our wicked

week and work while our wombs cramp, most of us

not knowing to wish for the days of confinement,

the segregation of the sullied.


I spread my soiled self around the world.

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