poetry in eden by Hannah Levin (13, Arizona)*

watch, now
as the poet relinquishes
her hold on biblical blamelessness;

​grab the scalpel.
carve the line.​
hold the gingham-pressed girls
               tight beneath little hyacinth blooms-
               fluorescent flickers inside.

---

i wish i could take those hyacinths
and crush each sinful petal,
each protruding leaf
each bit of propagated stem
buried beneath joseph’s lurid body.

and joseph answers:

​i must paint flowers with austerity,
               you must let them wither.
i must stand beside stolen natron
you must let it kiss bone.

​here within the confines of national sovereignty
the hyacinth blooms once again-
this expanse of promised land
is just a musing of bloodied dirt.
these scattered lies held as honey-tossed bait
caught an entire people within its net;
let us go.

​perhaps if i sit and recite kantian tales
of noumena, deontological ethics, prussia,
some self-fulfilled european
hodgepodge prophecy brimming with imperialism
hegemony or jingoism or freckle-flecked hermeneutics
we will be free once again;
perhaps if i bury these treacherous syllables of truth
wherever antiochus deems fit;
perhaps the maccabees will appear with glasses of mirth
perhaps i’ll feel alright again.


oh hashem, you feed us in flowers.
oh adonai, you pay us in sand.
oh elohim, you sting us with metal.
oh yahweh- return what is owed;


let these hyacinths bloom over stranger lands
let my people flock to a new horizon.