Another Eden

Not in that embalmed garden long ago,
Where from an interdicted rod Eve took
And gave mankind to eat, with that fresh look
And mien no longer maidenly, that said, ‘I know:
I am a child no more, nor will you be
When you have tasted this. Come to my bed,
Come on, don’t be shy’; but left unsaid
That his ‘yes’ would seal our scathe, and our mortality.

No! Not there, not you and me, not now, nor ever! Another balmier Eden calls us in,
To take her rich-hung pomegranates, free from sin,
To give each other, and eat with Him together,
Then laugh and sing and live no more alone
And make the silken pilgrimage to rest as one.