CASUS NOSTER [XII]

MUNDUS NOSTER

O, My Love, behold our Earth

which we have left

all those years ago:

The lushness of the green that we knew

so very well

has been replaced by dryness—

grey, brown, black—

and the air we breathed so crisply

has been tainted with smog and thick

blinding smoke—

our eyes can only take so much

of the haze.

The Garden we adored so much

Is now nothing:

Its gates and walls fell

as Adoshem struck His fist upon our land

and stripped the Garden of all of it’s green—

if His creations could not keep it,

then no one on this Earth would be worthy.

As you and I look down now

we cannot help but pine for the beauty which we felt

and took in with our eyes and mouths:

The succulent growings from the Earth

and the waters that flowed and dripped so coolly

down our throats.

We left the Garden,

we lived our lives

(had our sons, one more holy than the other),

moved about the Earth and found a land

to be our new Garden,

through not nearly as glorious as that of Adoshem’s.

Though it was His, it was ours.

For the first (and only) time, we felt the sting

of death—

you fell first and I wept,

for the one who was my Temptation was gone

and I had known no Earth—

Garden or otherwise—

without you.

Then I fell, too.

For the first time since leaving the Garden

I saw a blinding light

and remembered it dearly to be

Adoshem;

but this light was far brighter than before,

as you stood there beside Him, ready to greet me

with your loving arms and your tender lips.

When we asked Adoshem why

we deserved to spend eternity with Him

after our transgression.

He told us that it was because of love:

Love is the reason we fell, but our love

made the Earth a new Garden—

more vast, more encompassing,

more dear than any sensual pleasures He could have made

in the Garden itself.

Our love made the Earth ours.

Our love made His Earth ours.

As we looked down upon the Earth

we say it so:

Lovers embracing and mothers and fathers

kissing their babies on the forehead,

man holding his fellow man up

in times of dread – O my Love,

we did so much!

These sights

were so much brighter

than the flesh of the Fruit

and a thousand times sweeter.

We vowed to keep our eyes on this Earth

as our Eden is no Eden

without each other,

and this Earth became our Eden—

as we moved,

Eden moved with us

to all, man and woman.

So, my Love, join me

as I implore those who today inhabit

our Earth:

Keep the Earth an Eden

with love.

Finis.