Did you know God took away
nine-tenths of women’s love
so they would not eat their babies?
You know why: such cute little seraphim legs,
heads soft on lips, liquid nowhere eyes.
The trouble for Lilith was
God didn’t take it from her—
for the care of the babies you understand.
She was such a magnificent protectress
a she-wolf at the den door.
It was ok when she had someone to hate,
but once the danger was over, oh those babies,
how they smelt with their milk breath,
their sugar-coated plump little hands,
their firm peachy bottoms.
She got the taste for it;
one does they say.
And after her ardent attentions,
there wasn’t much left:
few bones, some gristly ears.
Hey, Lilith had a tough life. She was big and powerful, so she was the first woman to be replaced by another who was annoying and wimpy. Eve, what a horrible role model she was, I’m surprised the pretty snake even bothered with her. If the snake was smart she would have followed Lilith into the unknown and started the internet. So adam and eve, the first boring couple in existence. If Lilith had stuck around maybe women would be running the world…THAT’S the real reason she was banished. But hey, you can’t keep a good woman down and some of us call her Mom.
🙂 you have read ‘Grudges’ haven’t you? https://belindabroughton.wordpress.com/2014/06/01/grudges/
This one’s based on something Joseph Campbell said about her having been evoked to protect children, before her fortunes changed in the mind of man. (and i don’t mean mankind!)
Wow! I like this very much. Their milky breath. I could smell it. And just the right amount of gore. Yum.
well they are delicious, aren’t they
I like’ em in cream sauce. 😉
…just not sure I could eat a whole one, though.
deliciously gory indeed! Such unctuous images, exciting and inciting ALL the senses!
Dark, palpable tastiness.
it was certainly fun to write
The difference between man and mankind: man is a gender-codified being that thinks he is the universe. Mostly anyway. If you know of plausible references to the Lilith story, I’d like to read it. The books I’ve read about her seemed based on surmise, deduction. I like your reference to her as a she-wolf. If one believes the creation story and ake it as literal, the one that forbid the first people to eat from it then are the first tempter? A control freak so to speak?
The two main books I use of Joseph Campbell are ‘The Power of Myth’ and ‘Myths to Live By” I think this reference to Lilith as guardian transformed into baby-eater is in the first.
The other poem about Lilith,( here: https://belindabroughton.wordpress.com/2014/06/01/grudges/ ) is based on the same idea as the following quote (but I found it from a different source with more details at time of writing)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilith
‘In Jewish folklore, from the satirical book Alphabet of Ben Sira (ca 700–1000 CE) onwards, Lilith appears as Adam’s first wife, who was created at the same time (Rosh Hashanah) and from the same dirt as Adam – compare Genesis 1:27. (This contrasts with Eve, who was created from one of Adam’s ribs: Genesis 2:22) The legend developed extensively during the Middle Ages, in the tradition of Aggadic midrashim, the Zohar, and Jewish mysticism.[3] For example, in the 13th-century writings of Rabbi Isaac ben Jacob ha-Cohen, Lilith left Adam after she refused to become subservient to him and then would not return to the Garden of Eden after she had coupled with the archangel Samael.[4] The resulting Lilith legend continues to serve as source material in modern Western culture, literature, occultism, fantasy, and horror.’
As for the one who forbad the eating of the fruit, check my poem ‘grudges’, linked above. It was written after I got crabby about women, across the ages, having to cover their hair, in particular wigs for some jewish women. It’s quite bizarre, I think, to cover your hair with something that is sexier than your original hair, and to not ever let your most intimate loved one, your husband, ever see your hair. Assumedly he can see your pubes?
Each to their own, of course, across the world, with the exception of things that are downright cruel (like female circumcision).
Wow! Thanks. I know of Joseph Campbell and will read him more. There are so many discrepancies in the Creation Myth. Thanks for the links, will follow up.
One of the things I love about Joseph Campbell is the comparisons between basic myths across the world. also how they have resonance in our lives. The book we loved best ( maybe because it was the first one) was The Powerof Myth. It is him being interviewed by Bill Moyes. It was a tv series first so may be available in that form somewhere in the cyber web.
I’ll make a note and look it up. Thanks!
… from the tree of life that is …
Actually it was the tree of knowledge, wasn’t it? He then cast them out, so they wouldn’t eat from the tree of life and thus become immortal
I can no longer support that story. There’s a book, The Women’s Bible, edited by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, published about 1895 (!) critiqueing various aspects of the Bible, particularly with regard to subjects of women. http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/9880
Very Interesting Reading.
Thanks Petru. I will check it out. I love the myths. Love playing with them in poetry and reselling them slant. Such fun. I was never terribly indoctrinated with Christian theory, but am glad that I was forced to go to church services at the boarding school that I attended, because I received a knowledge basic Christian culture there. At the time I was borded witless and would find myself nodding off ( and getting detentions for it)