Nino Mick is a published author and spoken word poet based in Gothenburg, Sweden.

For a long time we avoided apples
We tried to guard the tree
in the garden of Eden
we tried really hard
to expiate the crimes of Eve
and we failed

I couldn't help
but to nibble your neck
and shame nibbled me right back
we prayed and failed again
they prayed for us
hands with venes as apple leaves
the family tree of healers
you know they pray for us still

We ate each other whole, after that
didn't dare to leave a trace
we binged on cocks,
pussies,
apples
rooted in our stomachs
like they warned us about
when we were younger
and suddenly
we knew what they never had told us

there are seeds in pleasure
saplings breaking free
my core family values
are mouldering away
my sex has saved me
baptised me in sap and juice
the tree
growing from my throat
became a cross
where I have crusified myself
and I fucking like the pain
I die from everything
I ever tried to be
Don't ever call me Eve
Adam never owned a single bone of mine
I am a serpent molted new
I know, it's very tempting
this gender bending spine

God
if you are done
drowning in the flood of sins
that's flowing from Genesis
and ever since, from the history books
of Christianity
I wanna know what the hell you're thinking
of me

and all I hear is silence

The branches spread like thighs
like wings of the peace dove
constantly changing it's mind
an apple leaf in its beak
still not knowing if the arch
ever was a home
worth returning to