WEST OF EDEN

This is my 31st post, a calendar month's worth of poems. After this post, for the rest of the year, I shall post twice a week, Monday and Friday. This post's poem is about being evicted from the Garden of Eden. I never could get my head around the story of the eviction. For me it always put too much emphasis on Eve. Plus in Genesis there are two differing stories of creation, does one take one's pick? 

WEST OF EDEN

my grandfather walked out of Eden

just as the trouble kicked off

and they were all cast out of paradise

by that angel with the flaming sword

grandfather said it looked the business

impressive in a peevish kind of way

the trouble with that sort of history

he told us is the focus on

those with their names in that book

and not the likes of him

offspring of Lilith the first wife

the one who is never spoken of

nor of all the others lost to time now

who were quietly getting on with their lives

while this angry god psychodrama

was acted out around them

my grandfather walked out of Eden

the world is large as he discovered

there is enough room for everyone 

I think this poem works. I wanted to express the view of those who are never heard, those who do not make history, the ones Frantz Fanon named the wretched of the earth. The people who got on with their lives while this great psychodrama around them, a repost to those who claim our country is full, who would make us all mean spirited. 

Here's Will Varley with a song about a man who died attempting to enter this country.

Until next time.