“They already were like gods
made in Yahweh’s own image
and didn’t even know it.”
“I could see the Woman would be easier
to convince. She appreciated color and
the bouquet, where the Man noticed
only the fruit’s heft and taste.”
Every snake has its own hole.
Sometimes a snake is just as snake,
Doctor Freud.
And the Serpent went on to make a fortune
developing shopping malls lined with retailers
promising to cover everyone’s nakedness.
* * *
God creates a Helper for the Man
and she helps him, all right:
helps him get into trouble,
helps him to the forbidden fruit,
helps him get ejected from Paradise.
Not only that, but I’d venture
she believed she was doing something
beneficial for him all along,
something for his own good.
(And it was very good)
* * *
Where has Eden gone? Maybe
it’s now ahead of us, down
the road, rather than behind
with its gates shut tight.
As for Original Sin,
life’s not fair.
Some parents gamble
away the mortgage,
their children’s
college tuition.
Others get to be boss
through the injustice
of genetic roulette.
But that’s not really
part of this story.
* * *
Where do the other people come from?
Maybe the question becomes, for us,
where do other people COME FROM?
You! My neighbors! My antagonist,
my friend, my spouse, my children?
Perhaps they come from that other couple
God created, in the first creation story,
just before Eden. Perhaps they, too,
are ejected from their own Eden.
Perhaps there were other gardens
that were also released –
the ones whose stories we’ve forgotten.
Poem copyright 2016 by Jnana Hodson
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