Garden

It is very honorable to love a woman In the spring, at midday, in the shade Of the very long ago, which is only human, And the weeping willow glade Very possibly is Eden In the middle of which transacted a trade Which reminds us that, when the world began Woman was contained in the side of man.

To be a snake is not very honorable And yet he was the go-between. And all of us, or those who are able To see the truth instead of the fable, At the center of it, or whatever I mean, Has some part of him snake, liable To tempt and be cursed, and crawl, having done, Responsible for every mother’s son.

So love, why not, it is a very serious business, And supports commerce, industry, wars, Poetry, women, I am told, somewhat less Than honorable, and leaves not scars Which can’t be healed by the next generation, or mars Anyone’s beauty sleep, permanently, and the princess In the story awoke, and was alive. Now let the song, Its singer, return to their beginning, end, where they belong.