Eve on the Loss of Abel
by Pamela Plummer

Sometimes I can make the seam

That joins us bright as sunlight

Then there are times
When the fabric
That holds us is slim shreds

And all memory and space
Of you
Leaves holes within my body

My nails tunnel into earth
I lift handfuls of dirt
To sky

Demanding

Make man again
From this clay

Make child
from this blood and bone of me
again

Again

Make man
Make this man

And all around him
Peace-filled and good

“Eve on the Loss of Abel” Copyright © 2000-2012 by Pamela Plummer

Poem as part of a series of “Eve” poems that Pamela wrote, which were inspired by an account of Sojourner Truth at the Ohio Women’s Rights Convention in Akron (1851). Pamela has published two collections of verse, is largely anthologized, and is the recipient of the Hughes, Diop, Knight Poetry Award from the Gwendolyn Brooks Center for Black Literature and Creative Writing.