Black Eve is Alive
by Sabrina Dawkins
Black Eve is alive.
“My name’s Betty.”
“No, it’s not.”
Mulholland Drive
All I saw was water
and Betty Shabazz
swimming after the flood.
We are dark—
It protects us from the sun.
We are “ugly”
because we are not the white standard.
We have nappy hair—
It protects our naked scalp.
And yet the flood saved her,
the mother of us all.
“Unto the woman he said,
‘I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception.’” (Genesis 3:16)
“And she being with child cried, travailing in birth,
and pained to be delivered,” (Revelation 12:2)
the ancestor of our Savior.
Reincarnated until sin was erased,
hated by the serpent’s race, (Genesis 3:15)
now I see her swimming
to a safe place
after the flood—
the second one.
No dragon in pursuit.
She tried to save the already dead,
walked through fire,
her heart was so big.
I celebrate you, Eve,
for teaching me how to love
and for celebrating a husband
whose spirit rose above
those of his enemies.
They shot a body
but missed the dove. (Matthew 3:16)
Beautiful!