Bone of my bone


In a velvet purse

I keep blood and treasure,

destiny and source –

fear my hips' swagger!


You are the pen that skids

lightly on the paper.

I am the book that holds

the word for ever.


I am you and not you

both kin and stranger

like lover and like foe

I demand surrender.


"Bone of my bone" is what Adam says when he first sees Eve, according to Genesis 2. Isn't it great that the first recorded human utterance according to Genesis is a love poem? Thank you to my mate Chris for that wonderful insight you passesd on all those years ago. Yet Genesis doesn't tell us what Eve said in reply... so this poem is imagining what she might have said, possibly in anticipation of all the incomprehension, struggle and pain that would arise in future between the sexes, but also the image of God's love burning in her for him.


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