Adamant Eve

When Eve spotted the sheen on the fruit,
Which more than the fruit, was absolute,
She suspected the serpent that had carved
Its sinuous path of the less-than-starved
Upon the grassy scaffolding of an epic plateau
Where first walked the Adam, a formidable beau.

And how green it was there, the superlative
Of the peanut gallery below, which could still give
Terrors of dullness to the sheltered few:
Eve and Adam sitting in a front row pew.
She spoke to a most shrouded Oracle,
Never worried that her questions were rhetorical,

And began to wait for word upon a rakish log
Waiting to begin her farfetched dialogue,
But grew sulky in days that yielded no results,
So she visited some little pagan cults
In a bedraggled orchard,
Where the Speaker found her beauty undeterred.

It was the kind of Disney renegade camp,
Where smoky fires churn despite everything damp
And sad-clad souls hold hands in resilient
Circles oh so plebeian and never brilliant.
Snow White wagged her finger at Pink Ladies,
And if one was kissed –- a presage of Hades!

The Speaker warned her of the apple, or snake,
Upon returning to that log like a rake.
Nonetheless, the apple drew her in its roundness
And its utter perfection, its nutritional soundness,
And the elderly message was so primeval;
How could that nubile apple be evil?

And in her, the racial memory of Narcissus,
As she stared into the reflection versus
The opaque fruit she had seen before,
Now looking edible ever more,
And, did she see, glowing like a lantern?
Adam’s face, just a tad stern.

She shared the contraband,
Placed the apple in his hand.
They bit into the succulent alabaster
Insides of the awakened master,
The birds began to sing, then drooped,
And for makeshift clothing the Eve scooped.

Suddenly in her, a force did compel,
An unprecedented image of the catacombs of Hell,
While she donned demure layers, as if stuck in the cold,
The heat of that paradise remained untold.
She did not know how that view she had come to inherit,
Or her insular outfit -- or why she did wear it.


by loquist62
posted on 05/10/2008