Of the red earth you came,
and I came from you.
O Adam, now we till the ground from which we were taken.
We were carved of rock and sandstone.
Now we are dust and dirt.
Unto it we will return.
But I did not know how to move
until I was dust.
The wind has made me whirlwind.
…
Supple serpent, how you lisped the secrets I dare not list, but the truth is
apples rot now, willows sway in pain,
and why I yearned for what was not mine to claim
I dare not say. I lost what I loved best,
but I did not know I loved him so.
And now he has hidden from me my own name
and I know not what I am.
Aye, Adam, fear came at the time of the evening breeze.
We knew we were naked when we saw
the flaws in our bodies. But I never woke with love
before your cracked bones gave me breath.
Our blood and pain
pour through the same veins.
…
Remember how closely we kissed the earth when we first met it?
It sent up storms of dust
and I clung to the only thing I could hold in my hands,
and found it was you.
I thought it would be the earth, cool and dry,
the mother we made home in
before we woke in sky.
Were you always there?
When we awoke in each other’s eyes,
I knew I loved you because I was afraid you would go
and the Lord would not be there to hear my cry.
…
Tense twisted neck and hard eyes,
I’ve learned to plead for poise,
cool waters and the song of silence,
since losing sweet unknowing.
But we can find the amen in the wound we made.
Aye, we walked with him in Paradise and did not speak.
There was nothing to be said, for he knew all
and we were content that it was so.
We never knew the Lord, for there were no words to know him by, when all was peace.
It was a word without meaning
when there was no war.
…
They will tell you that we fell, that to seek was sin.
But to awake in nightmare is to know that we once dreamt
and wandered where the lily grows.
Half-awake, we yearn for what we imagined was lost
and the pain is sweet.
Remember what we had?
And see now how we fight to regain Paradise!
I will try and love you.
Leave us here a little while, Lord,
to clear the muddled leaves from the path.
We had no work till now.
…
© 2015 Anna-Christina Betekhtin, All Rights Reserved.
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