By AJ Lamas-Nemec

Share:

The poem is meant to speak on the feeling of hopelessness, but also the possibility of change. The idea that even within despair, there is still the ability for something revolutionary to happen.

I am now left with
	the husks of being:
		my heart
I was once hope incarnate
	enchanting my way through this world
		creating a path of love in my wake
now look at me
	God used to pray to 
		relinquish all the sin He committed unto Us
now look at Us
	praying
		
	We were Eve
		We carved flower crowns into wood
			touched Our lips to their meaning
				We created a language of sensation
					never speaking their definition
						defining still what it meant to be
								Human
now look at me
	wood splinters grace my face
		reaching up We touch countenances
			stifled into movement
				We are forced to Emotion
					once She came to Us willingly
now look at me
	look at Us
		living in houses without gardens
I’ll kiss the air a
	grasp at knowing
		why We came here
	We were Eve We
		never needed an Eden to create Us
	We were Eve We
		knew what would happen
			knew Our fall to knowledge would be
						The most infamous of all

hear the last of His words as He looked at us
	risen once more
		Gardens forming over His home
			as We realize falling was Our final act of love
His final words
	muted by Our scream of rejoice

Process

When beginning the poem, I first was thinking about the expression of being a “shell,” to imply the emptiness of someone emotionally. The idea of numbness. I continue to speak on how there is the idea of someone above you, someone who is meant to aid you but in reality has caused much harm, and must repair the damage done. Though I refer to this higher person being God, this was mainly to continue the imagery of the poem. The God of this poem could be anyone who is said to be higher than you, despite the pain they cause. Speaking on Eve, I often find myself thinking of the story of Eden and being sympathetic towards the curiosity of the Eve. I wanted natural imagery to be used when referring to the Eve of this poem, to tie in to the idea of the garden of Eden.

In terms of line spacing, I always want my work to be visually engaging, organizing ideas through line placement, not through punctuation. With my capitalization, I wanted to place the capitalization of God to be the same as the capitalization of Eve to show that both are equal within the realm of the poem.