CASUS NOSTER [VII]

TEMPTATION

Your tilling done, my hands
on your back, sweat-laced
drenched in stinging warmness
of your hard day's work.

I asked you to rest
under that Tree
as you buried your face
in our Earth -
your eyes drifted off
down
to closing.

Then the force of your breathing
left me alone.

I took my hands off of your back
and wiped them in the grass:
its greenness was something strange -
the greenness that I had seen before
only more lush
and not as dead-looking.

You were drifting, I was stagnant
through the Sun's creeping hours.

Then I lied down next to you,
my arms gently grazing your back
(now dry):

My eyes were dry.

My eyes were tired.

My eyes were now closed.

The startling came, that noise -
that hiss - of a narrow tongue;
a smoothness that sways through my ears
bolting.

My eyes jolting,
my arms stiffening
solely until I arose
with sweat of my own.

All I saw was green.

I looked over, see you
(on your stomach still)
in deep
heavy
breath.

You did not even jostle.

I looked around - no beasts -
only the rush of the river
which lulled me before.

My eyes shifting,
my arms shaking,
solely until I heard
the sounds of his own.

A look down at my feet caked in earth
and he was crawling
up
up
over me,
taking my feet in his coils,
taking my calves in his sheerness.

I was left squirming.

He was there taking.

His eyes met mine -
red can do so many things.

He took the tip of his tail
and his mouth hissed –
his belly was smooth
over my pale thighs. –
then slowly
gently
touched it
on me –
nearly in me –
as you had done
before.

One touch.

My voice wanted
to shriek,
my eyes wanted to
cry out in tears,
yet my body liked the feeling
of being wrapped up
as it liked being wrapped up
in you.

With my body stiff,
he slowly moved up,
grazing my belly with his scales
(strange how he moved so well
with no limbs in which
to entangle me)
and moving up toward
my soft
pale
stiff breasts
(my teeth clenched
and my jaw stiffened
as my breath drew in deeper
deeper).

I arched my head back
as his belly slithered over my neck,
tense and strewn
with veins
and blood rushing through
the pillar of my throat.

I saw him daringly move up
to my mouth, his fangs dripping
and his eyes widening –
his tongue slipping in and out
of his thin, hard mouth,
pulsing.

His body became more taught.

My body became more tense.

I pined to shriek,
to wake you from your slumber,
but I could not move,
I could not speak.

He grasped tighter
tighter
tighter
tighter –

then let go.

I was left breathless.

I was left speechless.

I was left.

He slithered off of me
and arose (again, so strangely)
and stood over me;
his eyes softened
and his fangs stopped dripping.

I crept up, looking to you
(still sleeping),
my body sitting up in the grass,
now wet from my sweat.

My throat was parched.

“What do you want?”

He moved your head slowly around
and opened his wide mouth -
his voice was soft, yet harsh:

“My dear, I think not
of what I want, for I know what
you want.”

He laid those charmings on me again.
I was trembling, puzzled.

“How do you mean?”

He strode up to the Tree
and began to grasp it tightly
(as he did me)
and he slithered up
up
up
over to a thick branch
(as he did me).

“Sadly, I see you here,
taking in all those wishes
from God, Adam;
and sadly I must say that
I know that you
cannot take it.”

My forehead crinkled
and my heart raced –
more than when he grasped me
and stuck his tail within me.

He continued:
“Dear, your time has come
and I know how you can grasp
all that they have.

“They have more than you –
you are a product, a making,
the result of their need
for subordination.”

My voice came back to me.

“You lie!”

I bolted my head over to see
if you had awoken.

Nothing.

“I adore Adam, I praise God
and I do not obey Adam –
I am his equal,
his wife.”

He slithered over that branch
and came upon one piece
of the Fruit.

With his thick tail
he reached over
and
plucked
it
from the branch,
its ripping seeming to
echo throughout the Garden.

Still, you did not even jostle.

‘You adore Adam,
but do
you
love
him?”

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