Suburban paradise;
A hedged Eden,
Protected from
The Troubled world beyond,
Complete with apple tree
And entrance guarded
Not by a sword wielding angel
But Adam in dungarees
With a sixteen pound
Sledgehammer;
A man taken from the earth
Working the earth,
Tending the garden.
Roses blossomed there,
And Nasturtiums too,
Irises and wallflowers,
Flaming Corn, Sweet William.
and Orange Lilies (of course).
But his joy was in its produce;
Peas and broad beans,
Rhubarb and beetroot,
Raspberries and gooseberries,
Strawberries and tomatoes,
Lettuce and cabbage,
Chives and scallions,
Shallots and carrots,
Parsnips and turnips,
And potatoes,
White and pink and blue.
And that is where
Brothers grew, two by two.
And like the first siblings
We found reason to fight
Not over sacrifices,
But over the swing
And other things.
Death did not ensue
But the accusations flew
And echo down the years
Though woven through
With laughter.
Perhaps we fought
Over that swing
As a means of escape from
Our earthbound captivity
To join not the Angels,
Or even the birds,
But the ungainly aircraft
Flying nearby.
If those bulbous and boxy
things with wings
Could soar
Then why couldn’t we,
At least in our imagination.
And fly we did.
“One, two, three and away...”
Casting off
at the peak of the pendulum.
Castigated for the danger.
But we both learned
The hard way.
A reluctance to jump
At the right time resulted
In the resounding crack
Of the fractured arm
That echoes in
The repeated recriminations;
Whilst I once left it
To the count of five
And truly flew
Up, up and away
Over the girdling hedge
And down, down
Onto the cold concrete
Of the unproductive pavement
Beyond our Eden.
But no bones broken for me.
And that was not
The way that I
Ultimately escaped -
took flight.
No, that was down to
The Tree of Knowledge.
My eyes were opened
By a book placed in my hand
By another brother
The New Junior Encyclopaedia
AAR to ARM (unbroken),
But that was just the beginning:
Genesis.
Selah
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