poem
Volume 27, Number 4

Theology

If Eve and Eve
had been in the Garden,
there would have been
a long discussion
about ingredients
and apple pie
served to the serpent
and a hungry God,
their most passionate
visitors.

The authors of scripture
did not have such a lesson
in mind, fixed as they were
on scapegoating woman,
snake, gullible man;
eyes on the centuries ahead
full of sin, expiation,
coffers of forgiveness,
and a darkening past.


—Jane Yolen