There is a saying in my mother’s language, wap pale franse
                    meaning, you are speaking french.
                    meaning, you speak of flowers with no stems.
                    meaning, I am suspicious of your language.

                                            *

נקב
nqb

1. to perforate with more or less violence

/

In ancient Hebrew script, words were recorded solely in consonants,
the omitted vowels allowing     space for / slippage / intersection.
From a single sequence came forth an endless network of meaning.

and tell me

what is the meaning of my body?
this / hole / ?
I begin my mother’s / cavity /
and I am / cavernous / ,
I am / perforated / , I am
/ drilled / through made / hollow /
I am / pierced / through the / belly /
I am / cursed / ! / cursed / ! / cursed / !
I am / designated / for / striking / with
/ more or less violence /

2. a [woman]

*

אֲדָמָה
127. adam/ah
feminine noun

      from the earth
      you are made, adam(ah); red, ruddy, Maroon
      sculpted from dirt, from breath,
      from blood you are
      scion of the human
      of the is/land
      of the land

               *

kann
n.

   sugarcane;

      The thing is that we do not begin here.
      Or rather, we have been here since the beginning
      but we are not made of this soil;
              our roots wait
      headless somewhere in the passage
      from Papua to Senegal

      We rise not from the is/land but from the sea
      our bodies liquid and uncountable.   Yes,
      there was dirt and blood and zo bones
      but first, you will find, there was       /       I was
      mostly water

                     *

παράδεισος
paradeisos

      when translating the book to Greek, the great thinkers
      sought for a word suitable for the Garden and settled for this

      Paradeisos—from old Iranian pairidaēza:
      a zoo a royal (enclosed) park where wild animals roam free.

      and of course, this was a strange freedom, as it had limits
      and surveillance and walls. but you will find that at least it was
      honest

                         *

bagasse
from baga·zo
baga (berry) + zo [os]

      crushed sugarcane remains.
      “steal a piece of sweetness from your father’s garden crops and laugh in secret
      with your sister. the grass is tall and green and infinite    —she will hide you.
      eat with your teeth. tear at the flesh bark. gnaw and suck and spit the excess; my god,
      ambrosia can be turned to dust grass, like meat to bone to marrow”

                         *

               paradise
               nom masculin

                     You will find that the french often confuse heaven and paradise;
                     we do not say heaven on earth, but paradis sur terre
                     and this is meant to mean the same thing
                     as if the skies could exist on land, and paradise was not already there.

                     in this sense, god could reside on earth, and muddy his feet
                     and seem much closer to his people

                     in this sense, humans could imagine they were godly

Bios

Cassandra Eliodor

Cassandra Eliodor is a second generation Haitian-Canadian writer from Ottawa. She was the 2024 winner of the McNally Robinson Booksellers Poetry Award, with work to appear in Prairie Fire in the summer.