Eve Dreaming
by Nancy Rakoczy, Flushing, NY
2009 Grand Prize Winner
I see Eve dreaming
on a moonless night
caressed and held by a tree that tangles dreams and green
thoughts. A leafy smile, a rustle, a frown
and cascades of elephants and antelopes
leopards, lions, and lemurs pour from her head.
Dwarf zebras, a million anteaters pour from her sleeping head.
and Eve, who lies there dreaming
turns in her sleep and frowns, and cloven hoofed antelopes,
anteaters, sloth, octopi, and possums tangle the night
and dance in her hair. She frowns
and they trot away, slipping into a garden of green.
She sighs, turns on her side, and this woman who dreams in green,
and breathes up cascades of creation from her head,
gives up porpoises, starfish and whales with small effort and a frown.
Watch. A curved green stalk grows from her heart, as she lies dreaming.
This tall solemn stalk grows triumphant in the night;
this green life grows tall making shade for elephants and antelopes.
Look. Not just elephants and antelopes,
everything that is green,
everything that this moonless night
can show us,
Eve dreams. She lies there asleep, her head
crowned by a tree that cascades with life and still Eve is dreaming.
She sighs and frowns,
turns in her sleep, and with each frown
the bounty of her sleep is tossed from her crown: monkeys and antelopes
jump and canter away while she is sleeping and dreaming;
the green stalk grows from her heart, this green
life of silken leaves grows higher than her head
on this matchless moonless night.
Asleep on this particular night,
A hand pauses, and pulls and parts her flesh and Eve frowns,
While a wild animal torrent jumps from her head,
Amidst a swirl of elephants and jackals and antelopes
A hand searches and probes in the deep jungle green,
While Eve lies moaning and sleeping and dreaming.
Life pours from Eve’s head, but from her side is taken this night,
not her dreaming, but a rib, and a bone and a frown
while antelopes leap high and leap green.
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