Poem: “If Eve Side-Stealer & Mary Busted-Chest Ruled the World”

                                                               What if Eve was an Indian

                                                           & Adam was never kneaded

                                                       from the earth, Eve was Earth

                                                      & ribs were her idea all along?

                                                   –

                                                          What if Mary was an Indian

                                            & when Gabriel visited her wigwam

                                       she was away at a monthly WIC clinic

                                                         receiving eggs, boxed cheese 

                                                & peanut butter instead of Jesus?

                                                  –

                                                           What if God was an Indian

                                          with turquoise wings & coral breasts

                       who invented a game called White Man Chess

                          played on silver boards with all white pieces

                        pawns & kings & only one side, the white side

                & the more they won the more they were beaten?

                                                What if the world was an Indian

                whose head & back were flat from being strapped

                           to a cradleboard as a baby & when she slept

    she had nightmares lit up by yellow-haired men & ships

              scraping anchors in her throat? What if she wailed

        all night while great waves rose up carrying the fleets

            across her flat back, over the edge of the flat world?

“If Eve Side-Stealer & Mary Busted-Chest Ruled the World” from When My Brother Was an Aztec. Copyright © 2012 by Natalie Diaz. Reprinted with permission of Copper Canyon Press.