It happened on the day
we stood upright
for the very first time
coming face to face
with our mirror image
coming eye to eye
with that
which we would
come to name:
man and woman,
Adam and Eve,
the one and only
original sinners,
the human being.
Was it our own reflection
we fell head over heels
in love with?
Did the possibility of love
and passion and sexual
gratification
arrive fortuitously
on the scene
when, at long last,
the male beast
no longer came at his mate
armed and dangerous
from behind?
Is it any accident
that gazing into our lover?s eyes
can cause a wave to swell
deep inside our belly?
And that our lover?s scent
can cause our limbs
to twinge, and
without warning
melt?
And that the lips of humans
possess more nerve cells
than in any other part of the body?
Would the human race
exist at all if the very first
woman (let?s call her Eve
for the sake of argument)
had not decided, for whatever reason,
to stand on her own two feet?
Bringing her pelvis
upright with her, tilting
her she-sex forward.
Was it on this
seminal and
ungodly moment,
when one man
and one woman,
stood face to face,
that all
of humanity
was conceived?
– Published in The Northern New England Review?? Marylou DiPietro