Back to the Garden

Der Garten - The Garden 39 x 25 cm Acryl/Pastel on wood

ADAM AND EVE IN BERKELEY

Climbing under the blanket

on the back lawn, more or less

in our underwear, was not

a gesture of defiance designed to

annoy alarm or disgust

the neighborhood zombies—

I prefer to label it

maturity put on layaway. For a long time.

It’s still there, I think, feathered in dust, moldering

on a rusty shelf with microwaves and crystal balls.

Then there was Animush, meaning either

“peace pipe” or “war path” in Apache,

German shepherd

mixed with some other breed

manic with celebration, dancing around

the Incredible Moving Blanket while a mega spider

its puffy partially collapsed beer belly

the color of a soiled cotton ball

loomed weirdly in its broken web—a noticeably decadent

monster, like a character in top hat out of Huysman or Proust

                  cruising the Moulin Rouge

feasting on young girls from the provinces

just as we feasted on tomatoes & cucumbers

fresh from Denny’s garden and coated in

oil of sassafras, Italian vinegar, or lemon juice.

I think I was reading an introduction

to the Eros of Art or was it the Art of Eros

and you were reading the Palm of God,

sighing all the way through, astonished by its size,

its deep crevice of solitude.

 

Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young

Woodstock