Self-Portrait as Lilith
some days you seem
so disappointed, love but you knew
what it was.
i am your dread wife.
you will not throw me out
of eden i walk myself to the door.
o!
there is no snake i plant the tree.
i pluck the apple i bite.
the pomegranate the passion fruit
whatever the fuck.
i am feast unto myself.
in this wilderness the feral things name me.
& i was raised to one day wash
my husband’s feet at night.
of course i molted made myself a woman
who unmakes home.
refused to be whittled to a fine point
but you like me piercing.
beloved i will not
only writhe when coming.
my vow: break through this shell fully impossible.
your vow: lap every slick of the yolk.
Copyright © 2023 by Elizabeth Acevedo. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on May 5, 2023, by the Academy of American Poets.
“This poem, like many of my poems, is interested in complicating and subverting what we think we know about biblical, mythical, and/or folkloric figures. It is theorized that Lilith, Adam’s first wife, was banished from Eden for being disobedient to her husband. Rendered in the Bible as a ‘she-demon,’ little is written about Lilith’s creation and banishment, but she loomed large in my imagination, especially in my first year of marriage. What would it mean to be that kind of woman? What would it mean to love her? To cherish her as your spouse?”
—Elizabeth Acevedo
Elizabeth Acevedo
Elizabeth Acevedo is author of Beastgirl and Other Origin Myths (YesYes Books, 2016), as well as the novels Clap When You Land (Quill Tree Books, 2020); With the Fire on High (Quill Tree Books, 2019); and THE POET X (HarperTeen, 2018), which won the 2018 National Book Award in Young People’s Literature. She holds a BA from George Washington University and an MFA in creative writing from the University of Maryland. Acevedo is a National Poetry Slam Champion and lives in Washington, D.C.