FALL

O the heights!
Heaven full of glory, earth breathing beneath it.
Pleasure forevermore is ours—
Maker, man, and bride.
A song for the ages.

Until.

Teeth pierce.The serpent had bitten first, fang and lie
buried in thought and desire.
Now teeth break skin, and the garden
does not protest the ravaging.

Sweetness floods mouth and blood,
heat surging through chest and limb, thought and will,
until every part has tasted.

Changed.

Sweetness lingers, dilute, then vanishes.
A hollow taste clings to the tongue.
The belly turns, the chest tightens, creation trembles.
Silence folds over song. Color fades, line blurs.

I move, but the mind, lagging and fragmenting, understands too late.
Shame, jagged and free, cuts through all knowing.
The serpent slithers away unseen, lowered.

It is finished.

The ground exhales, its pulse altered, waiting.
And still YHWH Elohim does not speak.
The promise presses against the silent judgment.
The heart knows, before the mind,
that something malevolent waits—
unseen, patient, hungry.