An
excerpt from So Many Silent, So Many Unnamed
Shelomith,
The Blasphemer’s Mother, Leviticus 24[i]
I
am named but my son is not. He is stoned to death but I am not. Did I teach him
to question? Am I a daughter of Eve? Is it better that he isn’t strangled or
beheaded? That he doesn’t have to swallow hot lead? I hold his ghost in my arms as I held my
newborn babe. My body aches with loss. Slaves are forced to carry the red
sandstone and pile it in heaps. My son is brought forward, his hands tied
behind his back. He is covered in a shroud from head to toe. He is thrown into
a hole. He is buried to his waist. He cannot move. He cannot see. [ii]
How many stones is enough to kill a man? Who threw the first stone?
Aholibamah,
name changed to Judith, Genesis 36
I
do not refer to myself by name. I am nameless. Named after mountains, named by
my husband. They call me Oholibamah, woman of the high tent, mother to important
men. I am nothing. I am the ancestor of Mary. I am made of water. I am made of
blood. I give birth to blood and it stains the earth. The sons of Essau, son of
Isaac, son of Abraham, come from blood and cause blood to be spilled. These are
the generations of Heaven and Earth, where the great sun swallows the chaos of
water and thirsts for nothing.[iii]
Elisheba,
Exodus 6:23[iv]
I
am more than a twin. What is my oath? My husband’s brother leads us out of
Egypt. I move toward the future but I am reticent. My sister is the oak and my
mother the earth. My daughters are unnamed. I am Elizabeth’s shadow. She bore
John the Baptist, I gave birth to priests and strange fire.
Asenath,
Genesis 41[v]
Honey,
sweet on my lips. This is my punishment. My lips repeatedly stung. The angel
visits me. Pharaoh’s son hungers for me. I belong to Yaweh. I belong to
Joseph. He feasts on my body, always
sweet and my golden skin. In secret I wear the gold given to me by men who wish
to be my lovers. It blackens. It is merely lead. I lie naked in a field of
safflowers. Await the kisses of the bees.
Leviticus 11, 14, 16
Genesis 41-45
The
visual poems are part of the Vispo Bible, a life’s work to translate every
book, every chapter, every verse of the Bible into visual poetry.
Text
for the tw0 visual poems
Leviticus
11 And the Israelitish woman's son blasphemed the name of the Lord, and cursed.
And they brought him unto Moses: (and his mother's name was Shelomith, the
daughter of Dibri, of the tribe of Dan:) x
Leviticus
14 Bring forth him that hath cursed without the camp; and let all that heard
him lay their hands upon his head, and let all the congregation stone him. x
And
he that blasphemeth the name of the Lord, he shall surely be put to death, and
all the congregation shall certainly stone him: as well the stranger, as he
that is born in the land, when he blasphemeth the name of the Lord, shall be
put to death. x
Genesis
41-45 And Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zaphnathpaaneah; and he gave him to wife
Asenath the daughter of Potipherah priest of On.
Amanda Earl (she/her) is a polyamorous pansexual feminist writer, visual poet, editor and publisher who lives in Ottawa with her husband Charles. Her books are A World of Yes (DevilHouse, Ottawa, Ontario, 2015); Kiki (Chaudiere Books, Ottawa, Ontario, 2014 now available with Invisible Publishing), Coming Together Presents Amanda Earl (Coming Together, New York City, 2014). Her latest chapbook is En Fer, A Long Poem About A Love Affair (Ghost City Press, 2020). The Vispo Bible: Matthew is coming out with Knife Fork Book in 2021, all being well.
Amanda is the managing editor of Bywords.ca and the fallen angel of AngelHousePress. Further information is available at AmandaEarl.com. Connect with Amanda on Twitter @KikiFolle.
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