Eve – Kristiana Reed

From the moment she drew

Adam’s breath

she knew the ribs

beneath her breasts

were stolen.

The bones from which

she grew

were not hers to keep.

Her hands, man’s vessels

to hold their heartache,

massage egos

and cradle their droopy

eyed future.

Her feet, aching

to march not pace

to the sound of man’s

heartbeat and rage.

Her knees, finished

with praying to a God

who disowned her,

tired of kneeling

before men

who tell her

this was her purpose

from birth.

With the passing of years,

each bone would be retrieved,

polished and stored

in a museum,

next to the pedestals

men had placed her upon.

All that remained hers

was her spirit,

which departed

back into her mother’s hearth

of soil and roots

to birth new women

whose bodies are their own;

to walk freely

on this Eve given Earth.