Our garden was always open
To any who would come;
The flowers ever fragrant
And held in awe by some.

Tulips, lilacs, and daffodils,
Roses of red and white,
Peonies for my enchantment;
All made for our delight.

-----

You asked to see our garden,
And so I let you in.
Flattered by your interest,
I showed what grew within.

It was there you tempted me;
Said I would not surely die.
Tempted me with lovely fruit;
Twisted truth into lie.

You said my eyes would open,
I’d know both evil and good.
This you failed to tell me: could
I know but good, I should.

So I took the fruit you proffered,
Bit it and ate thereof.
And though it happened in silence,
That’s how hate supplanted love.

There’s something that I’d like to say:
I was beguiled; not so my mate.
Though horrified, he loved me so,
He ate the fruit and shared my fate.

Might this not have happened
Had I not strayed from Adam’s side?
He might have stopped my folly.
Perhaps you can decide.

-----

The light that cloaked us disappeared;
Vanished like the stars at day.
Our eyes opened, but what we saw
Brought foreboding and dismay.

We made clothing with leaves of fig.
Covered up to hide our shame
And guilt for having disobeyed;
But did nothing to hide blame.

Adam blamed me; I blamed you.
No self-responsibility.
Had we nothing else to blame
We might have blamed the Tree.

God listened, then pronounced His curse.
Our hearts were filled with woe
Despite our ignorance of how
Hard the winds of fate can blow.

-----

The garden blooms as once it did
But I’m no longer there.
What then was bliss, now is this:
A life I can barely bear.

-----

But yet there’s hope for me, for us.
God told of the master plan
(That we might live forever)
To save the race of man.

-----

The bluebells whisper now to me
I shouldn’t have ventured near the Tree.
All that I had may never be
Except in distant memory.