"Eve's Design" by Moria Linehan

To continue with our Women’s History Month theme of women writing about women, this poem fits in nicely. If you have nothing to do today and are a bit on the nerdy side, take ten minutes and think about the rich images in this poem. Pay attention as the traditionally domestic,wholesome, and “womanly” act of knitting is transformed in the poem. How so? What does it become? Also, what is the role of Eve in this poem? Think on it for a minute and see what you come up with...

Eve's Design
by Moria Linehan

Then there's the Yemeni legend
of Eve in the Garden knitting
a pattern on the serpent's back,
the snake unfinished like the rest
of creation, the first woman
thinking to add design, a sheath
of interlocking diamonds and stripes
along that sensuous S,
knitting giving her time to learn
what's infinitely possible
with a few stitches, twisting cables,
hers a plan to mirror the divine
inner layer that can't be shed
no matter what it rubs up against.

Found at: http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=30428