Paper House~

Eve sat before the looking glass

hair, a river of gold bathing  delicate shoulders

as Lilith brushed each wavelet with a pearl handled comb

made of old world bones

 

Adam reclined outside a memory

smoking a fine Cuban cigar

a wine glass in his hand

watching the women play at an art

delicate and profound

 

Eve brushed her cheek against Lilith’s palm

whispering

"Rescue me."

and the dark woman, with eyes like mercury

and hair the shade of violet deeps

smiled

as she bent against her ribtwin

to smooth her long hair from the nape of her swan neck

to kiss her

there

at the base

of all dreams

 

Adam closed his beautiful eyes

to the mysterious perfume

enveloping the painting

moving

with women arms

embracing

and women dreams

blooming

 

In the reflection of a mirror made of Pan's bone flute

Lilith saw his reflection

shifting just the slightest

out of perspective

and Eve whispered

"I am tired of it all. It hurts too much to hate now that we are here at the end of the world.  We have won, but what have we won, my ribtwin?"

 

Lilith thought about it for a while

standing against the silk presence of her Eve

as outside the paper house

the sky turned to metal

and the winds whipped an olive tree

 

Adam sipped the wine

tasting fragments of beauty

watching a reflective screen

where women dreamed what they were always meant to dream

before men forgot what it was to be a man

and tried to eat all those sweet biscuits

from those delicate palms

and drink all the magik

from those fiercely beating hearts

below which

children grew into possibilities

nurtured on an Eden grown inside

 

Lilith braided Eve's hair into golden pleats

and Eve watched the storm build around itself outside their paper house

"Lilith. . . ." Eve caught her hand "We're all guilty, you know."

 

The women looked at the man reflected in their looking glass

the storm shivered the origami folds of the roof

Lilith sighed

and took the hard way out;

she turned into the room of candle light

and unwound the unspaces between her and him

she slipped through like velvet antlers through the snow

into him

"Adam." she whispered

 

He put the newspaper down

he placed the wine glass on the floor

the cigar in a holder of red clay

"Adam, do you remember what it is to be a man."

Lilith asked

and Eve held her breath

her hands clenched around a ruby fruit

with two smile bites on either side

 

The storm outside the paper house paused

the olive tree leaned toward the moment

as if listening

"Lilith. . . ."

Adam said very softly

"I remembered what it is to be a man the day you forgot what it is to be a woman."

 

Crystal tears rolled themselves like dew

from Eve's eyes

leaving tiny cuts and trickles of ruby down her cheeks

as she stood

and walked to stand between the man and the woman

and there she tossed the ruby fruit

over her shoulders

shouting to the above

"ENOUGH!"

 

There

at the end of the world

inside a paper house

with origami walls

a woman with mercurial eyes

touched her forehead to Eve

to Adam

reconnecting a circle of Life

as they held hands

while a bitten fruit

red

and polished

disappeared into a funnel cloud

and an olive tree uprooted from the ground

and turned back into a kind of man

with scales like silver and evergreens

 

The kind of man with eyes dark as liquid oil

bent into the circle of Three

 

Lilith opened her eyes

and pulled the kind of man

into their creation

"You, you are what was missing all this time."

 

Complete

the paper house dreamed itself into a swan

as a little boy

folded every side

understanding what a treasure it contained

 

He hid it in a fountain outside of Tokyo

where a koi fish

swallowed the blush origami swan;

the koi fish

lived forever

with a dream in its scales

manifesting . . . .

 

~It could be this easy

it may be this easy

if we just remember who we are

and stop trying so hard

to be what we weren't ever meant to be~

 

 

 

 

copyright:2010vssmd/pa. inc

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

 

 

 

 

 

excerpt from

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reviews

[TAO]

...now...that was an intense piece of work. One that demands the reader meditate on its meaning, and see something of himself that he has forgotten; what he was meant to be, instead of playing at what he wasn't. I liked the question Lilith asked Adam, about if he remembered what it was to be a man. Made me think, and I found that, even as I see myself, I lack an answer for that very question. This poem went very deep, unbearably deep, into the darkness, and to a place hidden by it where an inner light refuses to let itself be smothered to nothing.


The ending...I don't know why, but I was thinking of "Men in Black" the whole time, the whole "galaxy" thing at the end where the alien peoples were playing marbles. Don't ask... It just popped into my head.

Selene... Priceless.

[Linda Marie Van Tassell]

This is so breathtaking and so lovely. My favorite part being:

"Complete
the paper house dreamed itself into a swan
as a little boy
folded every side
understanding what a treasure it contained

He hid it in a fountain outside of Tokyo
where a koi fish
swallowed the blush origami swan;
the koi fish
lived forever
with a dream in its scales
manifesting . . . ."

The imagery here is astounding.

Linda Marie

[Aven]

man and woman trapped in the wrong colored scales... eve bound by her dependence on lilith... adam bound by his depence on the daily news... I hope I got it right, that's how I felt :)

my favorite part was actually how you tied it together at the end "Complete / the paper house dreamed itself into a swan / as a little boy / folded every side / understanding what a treasure it contained" wonderful metaphore... and I love origami!

[.]

my dear friend Selene-
there is nothing i take pleasure in more-
than waking up from a sweet/poetic nap
only to find myself enthralled by reading
the creative splendor of you :)

[MuSe Ampoule]

This has so many twists but it's such a remarkable journey. Adam/Eve, Biblical ideology meets Pan and the Green Man, the Old Gods and then turns to a micro-Shinto world and all the possibilities of those meeting create. Are we not all as one and why have we forgotten just how small we all are in this vast expanse of Gods? This is a brilliant combination

Such a profound piece of work and so enjoyable to read. Thank you.

[Goodbye]

Such a magnificent jewel of words, of the longing we feel to be ourselves, for others to be their true selves, of the cruelty we can inflict on others, especially in the lines, "Adam said very softly/"I remembered what it is to be a man the day you forgot what it is to be a woman."/ Crystal tears rolled themselves like dew /from Eve's eyes /leaving tiny cuts and trickles of ruby down her cheeks"

So much humanity contained here on so many levels...thank you.

[.]

goodness...I love your work - but this is breaktaking..the bibical mysteries tied into the timeless message evoking all sorts of images as your pen weaves this epic drama..sign..easily my favourite

[Lachenille Papillion]

sigh, if humanity would only accept their pristine place among the animals and stop the facade of superiority... if they would only cease creating Deities to blame their own creation and bad behavior upon... if they would only pause long enough to give what they would long to receive... if they would only take their next breath knowing that the carbon they give is nourishment and sustenance to the lifeforms that create the very air they breathe... if they would only suspend their misguided perceptions of a reality that doesn't exist as a constance... if...

then...............................

my heart here, as your words were sorely needed today, as your voice is every day... hugs

[Cafe Reader]

Ed Hart is right! You're the sacred waters we all come to drink, to learn about what it means to be a real human being. You remind us all, Prophetess! (:

[SpokenWord]

When we portray ourselves as something we are not we indeed make a paper house that can easily be taken away from us. Are people really proud of who they are in life? with the way society excludes more than includes is it really possible to be just you if you don't have the money to dare to be different? Your words are sweet and graceful with a message that is direct and impactful. Adam and Eve is one of my favorite stories.

[Ed Hart]

you write, and we all rush to quench our thirst by the stream of your words...and we know, we just know that our souls have wandered afar, and are dangerously close to the edge...but, who cares...shall we not immerse ourselves and let go...