from behind fig trees

he knew

When he asked the question

he knew the answer

he must have known

that is His perogative

to Know -

to Know us better than we know ourselves

Where are you?

(Oh, how many times I have asked that of Him!)

but in the Garden he asked it of them

who had tasted good and evil

and suddenly

knew shame.

The shame hides me

i hide in the shame

from the shame

around the shame

I will destroy the glorious fig trees

in expression of shame

creditors, debtors, debtees

invoices bank statements unopened letters

bottles relationships colleagues unfinished

broken promises

boxes of cake, scores of chocolate eaten at midnight

carbon footprints, oil addictions, squandered lives

self-starvation, stealing, manipulating

viscious laughter, unacceptable and unacknowledged pleasure

warfare, germany, rwanda, china, bosnia, columbia, mexico america

who is the real abuser

rapists mascurading as security guards and (their) women cast out -

cast away -

grown victims of pedaphilia hang their heads

(as if the victim is at fault) -

our shame

litters this precious planet

a plastic island, a thousand species dead,

the mourning of silent springs

sounds like the whistle of wind through dry weeds

where once was lush pastoral land

before the oil was stolen from its burial chambers

and the climate changed

He said,

Where are you?

But he knew, he knew!

Why must he ask us to come forward?

Why must we of our own accord

step forward

from behind fig trees

and announce ourselves

clothed

announcing our shame and our bodies

such naked vulnerability

the girl who did not want her father to see her

the boy who did not know how to be a man

the fear of being cast out

(if you see me you will surely inevitably reject me)

the fall

An invitation:

Where are you?

To be seen.

To know good and evil

and to learn

that actually

you are good

that really

you are loved

and all that stuff

is just stuff

because we have already

survived the fall

we have already

been known

as beautiful.

To be broken

and discover inside

the sweet pink flesh

of figs -

this too surely

he knew.