“Not made of rib, but ocean” by Amanda Earl

Poetry Pause is the League of Canadian Poets’ daily poetry dispatch. Read “Not made of rib, but ocean” by Amanda Earl.


Not made of rib, but ocean

By Amanda Earl

iridescent blue

Eve slithers from depths

of salt from clear

to murk through mud

to sand and hard surface

pebbles and seaweed

gulls crying overhead

she swallows the cold

and gasps

Eve holds herself

tight gazes back

into fathoms

of anemones

and starfish

for a moment

she doesnโ€™t think

she can say goodbye

doesnโ€™t think she can

go forward

how we miss

the familiar

imagine the first woman

alone before the Fall

and the judgement

stands upright

the scales removed

from her eyes

Eve feels

the sun

its heat is the love

she needs

soon she will find

the Garden of Eden

where she will pluck

the thornless roses to

offer a god who will

not shame her for

her desire to know


Copyright ยฉ Amanda Earl

Amanda Earl (she/her) is a writer, editor, publisher, reviewer, visual poet, who lives on the unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg Peoples. Slutflowers, Earlโ€™s collaborative chapbook with Matthew Walsh is forthcoming from Knife | Fork | Book. Earl is the managing editor of Bywords.ca and the editor of Judith: Women Making Visual Poetry. Please visit AmandaEarl.com for more information or subscribe to Amanda Thru the Looking Glass for musings on finding joy in difficult times.


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