Propositional Statements Regarding Lot’s Wife
2 Minutes Read Time
The conversion of Lot’s wife to a pillar of salt
is a common explanation for the geographical
formations at Mount Sodom The woman-shaped
rocks might well be man-shaped, but That Lot’s
wife was named “Edith” is not information recorded
in Genesis Why Edith was death-bound on a hillside
to watch Sodom’s destruction is a question people
still ask about women Perhaps evil was her thing
Perhaps disobeying was her thing Perhaps
obeying was her thing A question more people
could stand to ask about women is how God’s gaze
hardened on Edith, but On the night before
Sodom’s conversion to flecks of God’s burning spit,
two angels knock on Lot’s door Lot orders Edith
to make dinner for angels Everything put through
an angel’s mouth comes out of it just as it was
but turned on its side The men who come for the angels
are only not rapists for lack of someone to rape
so Lot turns the whole scene on its side and offers
their daughters instead Edith, but in a room
the shape of a woman Information more-or-less
recorded in Genesis is that the shape of a woman
is the shape of our minds Stories turned
on their sides have long been traditional dinner
for women A question Lot does not ask
about angels but many people ask about women
is why they don’t save themselves Perhaps
our story converts them to flecks of God’s burning
spit Perhaps we are saving ourselves Perhaps
the saving comes out of us as a story not recorded
in Genesis Daughters, but in a story the shape
of a man In some literal readings of Genesis God speaks
most loudly in geographical formations God said
to Edith Do not look behind you A question God might have
asked about Edith before converting her to part
of the hill in our minds is what she meant
when she turned perhaps she was looking for
a common explanation perhaps she’d been turned
on her side perhaps she could smell a city on fire
and understood it to be behind her, above, and also ahead
Read more from Issue 19.1.