Exquisite
Experts say we may now unmask
everyone wants to breathe freely
even in smog, even in icy air.
Experts say now we may unmask
ever without a filter between mouth and lungs
escaping pleated paper, creased cloth
Eden – it will be Eden.
Eden had only skin and fruit, and
skin of a fruit, pierced by
Eve’s teeth.
Eden had only trees,
each one pleasing to the sight
each fruit delicious, exhilarating.
Eden had trees, skin, fruit and
skin of a fruit pierced by
Eve’s teeth.
Eve’s teeth emerged from taut skin
essence of fruit dripped down Eve’s chin.
Eve, foolish, deliberate or brave.
Essence of fruit on her chin,
Eve, foolish, deliberate or brave
led us from a fairy-tale place to
everlasting ensnaring tangles of joy, sorrow, anger
envy.
Emerging from the fairy-tale, the fable, the fiction to
energetic life, to
Earth.
Earth, the truth of it, as it should be, as it is
Eve escaped the fable, the fiction of Eden
emphatically brave.
Everlasting – we are required to be brave, in the face of
emerging variants
exhausted, we trudge onward
exhausted, hungry for fruit
exhausted, we read ourselves fairy-tales.
Is this the true earth?
Earth – exhausted, eternal,
earth – tangles of joy, sorrow, anger
earth, our earth – full, taut skin, pierced by teeth
Eve’s earth – emphatically enticing, ensnaring, exquisite.