she ate
the appleheart
of my tree
which is to say
me
each day another bite
sweet at first
knowledge
a blistering sun
seeing every awful
separating her
from the Garden
of our young love
I ate my own heart
each day another bite
hoping to follow her
self-consumed
knowledge
a blistering sun
seeing every awful
the thought
of the existence of Gardens
made me laugh
a hollow laugh
I would be back
to that tree
Image: Masaccio [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
This poem was inspired by a magnificent book that I am reading right now, The Eden Project: In Search of the Magical Other (Studies in Jungian Psychology By Jungian Analysis, 79) (affiliate link) by author and Jungian analyst James Hollis (http://www.jameshollis.net/welcome.htm).
I am finding it a fruitful (pun intended, I guess) meditation on the expulsion from Garden of Eden and its meanings in my life.