The original oppression of woman
Was based on crude denigration.
She caused man to fall.
Therefore, she became a scapegoat.
No, not a scapegoat,
Which might be, blameless
But a culprit richly deserving
Of whatever suffering man chose
Thereafter to heap on her.
That is a woman in the Book of Genesis.
Out here, our ancestors,
Without the benefit of hearing
The story of Genesis in the OT,
Made a similar story
Differing only in local colour.
At first, the sky
Was very close to the earth.
But every evening
Woman cut off a piece of the sky
To put in her soup pot.
Or, as in another version,
She repeatedly banged
The top end of the pestle
Carelessly against the sky
Whenever she pounded the millet.
Or as in yet another rendering-
So prodigious is man’s inventiveness-
She wiped her dirty kitchen hands
On the sky’s face.
Whatever the detail
Of woman’s provocation,
The sky finally
Moved away in anger,
And god with it.
So, to imagine goddesses
Or mothers of god
Or daughters to god
Is particularly blasphemous
In the mouths of people
Who hold the female sex
In contempt.
Who boast, beating their breasts,
Like the Pharisee at dawn prayer.
Thank you Almighty, God
For not creating me as a dog.
For not making me a gentile, and
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