Between the Apple and the Bite: Poems about Women's Predicaments in History and Mythology
By Sue Woodward
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About this ebook
Sue Woodward
Sue Woodward has spent most of her life in Cape Town although she was born and educated in Johannesburg. She studied English and Psychology at the University of the Witwatersrand, became a teacher and then a writer and editor of educational materials and children's stories. She has been published in many journals and anthologies and in 2019 won the McGregor Poetry Festival competition. between the apple and the bite is her debut collection of poetry. She lives in Muizenberg close to the sea, the mountains and the vlei.
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Between the Apple and the Bite - Sue Woodward
I
eve
in our favourite spot, in the embrace
of god’s tree, the last rays of the sun
are blocked by solid granite, the rocks
dark humped monsters crouch heavy
the wind shivers the poplar leaves, silver
maracas harmonising with distant barks
calling adolescent baboons to bed
we sit lonely and companionable
you are content with mapping the stars
as they appear in tiny pricks and patterns
sirius, orion, canopus, the dog
I chat, keep my hands busy ask questions
what if and why, why the stars why the fruit
why the moment of freedom between the apple
and the bite, why am I wholly woman when I
contemplate the abyss, when I hold forbidden
fruit sink my teeth into waxen skin
bite off a chunk of flesh?
eve
The selection for ‘predicaments’ starts and ends with poems about Eve’s predicament at being blamed for tempting Adam into sin by offering him the forbidden fruit. Centuries of misogyny have arisen over Eve’s responsibility for this original sin. Initially I thought to explore the Genesis story of Adam and Eve as an example of the fleeting moment in time between an idea and an action, the apple being the idea and the bite being the action – the moment of pure freedom before the consequences set in. The poem took on a life of its own and became an account of Eve’s predicament as a consequence of making the choice between innocence and experience.
Source: Genesis 2.15 – 3.24
leda
arriving in good time not believing my luck if i could get this part it would be the break of a lifetime a sidekick leads me over thick grass to a river bank with an umbrella a lounger champagne in an ice bucket one glass he fills the glass i settle on the lounger sip on popping bubbles in dry heat like the karoo in a drought my body under an electric blanket my cheeks flushed with the champagne heat prickles of sweat dotting my neck i sip watch the condensation on the bucket drip onto the grass he fills the