subtext

• •

Not the Promised Paradise

She wants something not this—
the teeth grinding dreams,
waking worried about work:
as if she has done something wrong,
not completed an unexplained task,
failed to live up to the repeated lie.
A snake’s hiss whispers nearby;
a peach wetly ripens in the sun.
He’s in the garden calling her name.

(July 19, 2016)