Joseph Fasano
Eve Speaks to Humanity
I didn’t raise you like this.
What is that on your fist?
Mud? It’s not mud.
Where have you been?
Where did you get all that gold?
You smell like someone else’s daughter.
You know what they say about you, don’t you?
What is that on your boots?
Don’t tell me it’s nothing.
Don’t.
Every once in a while, if you really wanted to, you could act your age.
I didn’t raise you like this.
I didn’t.
It’s blood, isn’t it?
Wait until your real father comes back.
Just wait.
You have no idea how much it hurts to believe in you.
It’s blood, isn’t it?
Don’t lie to me.
You wouldn’t.
I know you wouldn’t.
If you really loved me you would give me a moment’s peace.
One.
What’s that in your hand? What is that in your hand?
Look me in the eyes when I talk to you. Where is your brother? Your sisters? What are all those little shrouds there for?
Words Left by Humanity in the Time Capsule
Sometimes we gave water to our neighbors.
Sometimes we didn’t hunt each other.
Sometimes our fathers were not
brought out back and told to kneel
until they kissed the earth they swore
they once belonged to.
Sometimes there was bread and milk
on the tables
and sometimes we remembered
there was no such thing as someone else’s mother;
there was no such thing as someone else’s child.
Sometimes we remembered when we said you
we meant the part of me I have not yet met.
Sometimes, when the fires died, it was dark enough.
We walked out and we looked up and we saw it:
the starlight, the starlight that had made us.
Sometimes no one lay in any coffin
with seven braids in her hair-
A braid for every year she’d had.
A braid for every year.
Words Whispered to a Child Under Siege
No, we are not going to die.
The sounds you hear
knocking the windows and chipping the paint
from the ceiling, that is a game
the world is playing. Our task is to crouch in the dark as long as we can
and count the beats of our own hearts.
Good. Like that. Lay your hand
on my heart and I’ll lay mine on yours.
Which one of us wins
is the one who loves the game the most
while it lasts.
Yes, it is going to last.
You can use your ear instead of your hand.
Here, on my heart.
Why is it beating faster? For you. That’s all.
I always wanted you to be born
and so did the world.
No, those aren’t a stranger’s bootsteps in the house.
Yes, I’m here. We’re safe.
Remember chess? Remember
hide-and-seek?
The song your mother sang? Let’s sing that one.
She’s still with us, yes. But you have to sing
without making a sound. She’d like that.
No, those aren’t bootsteps.
Sing. Sing louder.
Those aren’t bootsteps.
Let me show you how I cried when you were born.
Those aren’t bootsteps.
Those aren’t sirens.
Those aren’t flames.
Close your eyes. Like chess. Like hide-and-seek.
When the game is done you get another life.
