Emma Avros

Eve,

All daughters learn from mother’s failure—Eve
was motherless. The first to bear the wrath 
of father disobeyed, she fell from grace, 
returned to dust, as silent as the bone 
from which she bloomed. Protect the fragile man.
O nameless wife, o girl-less woman. Look:
she’s hungry. Banishment is still escape.
She grit her teeth and hauled her husband’s weight,
unwilling to be burned or buried there. 
A daughter’s not a thing one unbecomes. 
It is an unbecoming.

All daughters learn from mother’s failure—Eve
was daughterless. The death of Abel, Cain’s
damnation, Adam’s shame and banishment: 
no men can learn, all women eat alone, 
and your blood burns with hellfire due to her. 
Her motherhood had no right way to be,
and in her image we are made for fault.
How womanly, her dying thrice: the fall,
in all delivery, and final sleep. 
A mother’s not a thing one unbecomes. 
It is an unbecoming.

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Emma Avros is a student at the University of North Florida, pursuing a degree in Creative Writing and Psychology. Avros hopes to pursue an MFA in 2024; in the meantime, Avros studies Shakespeare, mythography, and the art of trying not to be annoying about both.