Creation Myth/Golden Age
A god from the East and/or above and/or far far away
took to the notion to plant a fetal-curled seed by the banks
of a body of water. Four hundred thousand years of deity-
induced rain and sunshine caused the stone to sprout
into a city’s worth of architecture, gold-leafed astronomies,
and smiling, single-headed cows.
The women’s eyes housed nine-pointed ceruleans
and children were taught at an early age the value
of aneroidical breathing.
Monsters lived the whole of their lives in glass coffins,
surrounded by orange safety cones.
Old men would spend days on their backs,
watching clouds take the shape of semi-sapien eyeballs.
Peopled by swallowers of burning tea leaves,
the inhabitors of this land lacked the mouth
mechanisms to make hissing sounds.
Whenever they felt angry or threatened,
they had to resort to humming.
Daniela Olszewska is the author of three chapbooks: The Twelve Husbands of Citizen Jane (Beard of Bees), The Partial Autobiography of Jane Doe (Dancing Girl Press) and Resort to Humming (Scantily Clad Press). No Tell Motel first published this poem in April 2008. Daniella wrote, "The myth poems are very loosely based on a now-lost book of Polish folk tales. Writing poems based on pre-existing narratives was a wonderfully frustrating experience. At times I felt as if the story limited the language available to me. This, of course, made me work that much harder to find words/images that: (A) excited me (B) stayed (more or less) true to the story. I highly recommend putting a myth-retelling prompt in your NaPoWriMo arsenal."
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