One of our Moristotelians, Michael Brownstein, had a poem recently that referred to Lilith [“In the Morning It Will Still Be OK,” November 15], according to some the first wife of Adam. Created at the same time, she bristled at being put in a subservient position to her husband. After much fighting, she was sent away from paradise and Eve was created from Adam’s rib to take her place. Her appearance in the scriptural canon is sketchy, with some translations using her interchangeably with a night demon or a screech owl, sometimes as other types of birds. Here is my poetic take on the plight of the first wife.
Ah, poor Lilith
as she wanders in darkness,
creeping and stirred to flight
with the nightjars,
wailing among the poorwills
she bore into the world,
