No the serpent was not
one of God's ordinary creatures.
Where did he creep from,
This legless land swimmer with a purpose?
Adam and lovely Eve
Deep in the first dream
Each the everlasting
Holy of the other
Woke with cries of pain.
Each clutched with a throbbing wound-
A sudden cruel bite.
The Serpent's head, small and still,
smiled under the lilies.
Behind him, his coils
Had crushed all Eden''s orchards
.
And out beyond Eden
The black, thickening river of his body
glittered in giant loops
around desert mountains and away
over the ashes of the future
one of God's ordinary creatures.
Where did he creep from,
This legless land swimmer with a purpose?
Adam and lovely Eve
Deep in the first dream
Each the everlasting
Holy of the other
Woke with cries of pain.
Each clutched with a throbbing wound-
A sudden cruel bite.
The Serpent's head, small and still,
smiled under the lilies.
Behind him, his coils
Had crushed all Eden''s orchards
.
And out beyond Eden
The black, thickening river of his body
glittered in giant loops
around desert mountains and away
over the ashes of the future