LEAVING EDEN
Strong white teeth in Eden break the skin of taboo fruit,
and Adam’s inner-clock begins to tick with a callous throb
like tired fingers snapping a slow, sad meter for the very first time.
His tight skin slightly relaxes. Madness.
What is this strange spray on his brow,
the new spread of sweat from his pores as he works?
Eve dreams restlessly now that she knows what evil is,
haunted by the sound of a flaming sword at the garden’s east.
Can they feel the tiny click of begun mortality?
Are they disappointed when death is delayed?
© 2007 jackie lea sommers
4 comments:
I've always thought--we live with sin. We have our whole lives. So what must it be like to sin when you know nothing but paradise? Is it so much worse than we could ever imagine sin? Or--did Adam and Eve experience grace first-hand more powerful than we could ever imagine?
Glad you are writing again. It's beautiful. Mom
"Are they disappointed when death is delayed?"
Did they even know what death was?
"Leaving Eden" is beautful and carries wrenching emotional force. I do not want to dwell on it for too long or I will slip toward despair about my own "inner clock."
Before that can happen, my "science brain" remembers that this poem raises (like the story in Genesis) two closely realted difficult theological questions.
If we literally interpret the story, and Adam and Eve were created with "strong white teeth" already formed, then those teeth never grew. Would God create things which seemed to have age but did not; in other words, would God creat false evidence of previous existence?
Their teeth and skin, as you imply, would not have aged from Creation to Fall, which means that the age they appread to be when the were expelled was probably radically different from their actual age. Would God create something to appear older (or younger) than it actually is?
I realize these questions completely miss the point of your poem, but they are important to me. You can understand why if you consider their implications for anyone whose field of research interacts with measurements of the age of the Universe.
Hey Jackie! You always have been a wonderful writer. Good job! I just thought I'd let you know that I am still here. Didn't have a chance to get on in a little while, buuuuuuuuut now that it's after Jan 31st I will have more time. :) Have a good day!!
~ Chas
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