Immortal When Annoyed

Remember when we lived in the swamp in a chicken-legged house? Remember when Hera wished for a son and whipped ordered eggs to parthenogenesis? Remember when the husband laid down  at the feet of his wife? Remember the lamb? Remember when property was a sin? Leave all things you have. Remember what the wolves did under scarcity? Remember when all the witches got together  and hanged the town fathers from a linden tree? Me neither.

Remember when the regiments came?  Remember fire? Chaos from orders. Remember when my homegirl taught you  to play vinyl backwards and reknit Osiris? Remember when the girls were turning into laurel trees and the boys were turning into swans? Remember when the angels came down from heaven and fucked the shit out of us? Remember how this poem is not a biography? Remember Gaia? She loved all her children  the same. Alpha and omelas. Remember when I gave birth to you? Remember how you told your mother the material world was an illusion and she smacked you with her jewel-encrusted spoon? Remember the queen who was feted  with her own two sons? Chaos from hors d'oeuvres.

Remember when love was a commandment? Remember when the girls were wine,  how their laughter fizzed like champagne floats and we drank and drank?  Remember when the men stiffened with milk? How we drank and drank! You mistook the trees for the harvest again, orgasm from chaos. Remember when you were wet with miracles?

Remember when we could always tell what not to do by the little piles of ash? Every natural law looks like chaos while you're inside of it. Remember how late you got to the vineyard?

Remember more things in heaven and earth? All that is seen and unseen? Remember all the things we can't see? Remember when the world was an egg? Remember before it all went wrong? Remember when pride was a catalyst? Remember how I stopped apologizing for my body and now my body lives rent-free in your head? Remember when I was made of flowers? Remember when I was made of blood? Wearing Hecate's three faces of maiden, multiplier, swamp. Remember when I went skinny-dipping in an ocean of milk? Remember how physiologically, you're bigger than me with more upper body strength, and how spiritually I don't care? Remember when I hid my heart in a knotted oak so I couldn't be killed? Remember how I danced the night after  my wedding was spoiled: Drowned and dragging seaweed, order from choreography. Remember how this poem is not a biography?

Remember when flesh was a prison? Life sentence. Remember the lady in a cage? Remember how we really lost Eden? Remember how evil is not just good backwards? Remember when the mask of your face sloughed off and all that was left was a hole no man could fill? Remember that this poem is a biography?

Remember when love was a commandment?

Do you remember when pride was a sin?

-Elisa Chavez