The safest of havens, plotted for us in love

Carefree, we moved among the trees

Untouched by shame, untouched by pride.

Innocent: how could we know? Our

Perfection was lost upon us

Until I laid my hand upon the tree

Ran fingertips over encoded bark

Until I heard the leaves

rustle secrets to the passing wind

Until the hunger set in

hot as flame

Sun-rusted flesh gave way to teeth, and

juice ran down my wrists.

Innocence: how could we know? Its

boldness, its fragility lost upon us

until it had fallen, irreparable.

Knowledge, grief, and

death came in their time

But tell no stories of how I was led astray.

Tell the bittersweet story of children and parents:

Say I found wisdom worth pain;

Say I found yearning that outweighed death.