Hills rise from primal rivers
Flowing through the dawn of time
Near Eden’s ancient garden
Where the first macaw screeches
Eat it!
Eat it!
Eve reaches for one apple
While suckling another
Ignorant of everything
but bliss

Eve’s reach
Mesmerizes Adam and the fox
Whose lascivious appetites rise
Watering mouths
Glistening eyes

Set against a nascent world’s skies

Birds, snakes, breasts,

And a scruffy dog
Looking out at you,
Expectantly.

Abruptly
Out of place.

Brenda Warren 2017

Notes: This piece is based on Jacob Jordaens’ painting, The Fall of Man. It is housed at the Toledo Museum of Art. My husband and I laughed too loud the first time we saw the little dog in the painting. So here’s a poem about him.