Poems in Progress: Metaphors All the Way Down

The serpent, slipping through the Garden, Eve
Behind him, heading toward the forbidden
Fruit, a pomegranate, historians say,
But the apple we all know. What knowledge
Did Eve truly unlock with that first bite?

Was Democritus inspired by her?
Did he see into the delicious juices
Dripping down her chin and hypothesize
The atom? And Dalton, did he hear her
Story and wonder what it was made of?
His image, which is not actually
An atom–can we ever see one?--
Helped us understand a little bit more.

Before both, some Sumerian sitting,
Or Egyptian eating an apple, noticed
That two apples next to two more apples
Equaled four apples. Then we could share our
Harvest, or sell it, but certain dimensions
Were always missing.

So the serpent came…
To remind us to bite in? To remind
Us to taste? To remind us of life beyond
Two plus two?

And now, what do we think when
We ask each other if we’d like an apple?
Some may see atoms, some may count, but red
Concerns me most right now. Which red do you
Think?

The Red Delicious mealiness from
Elementary school lunch memories? Or
The lighter red fading to hints of green,
Yellows even–the Macintosh enters
The produce scene. Or full green Granny Smiths
Sitting on my grandmother’s counter waiting
To become a pie. Or local orchards’
Early October Jonagold, picking reds
In a variety of colors: Gala,
Empire, Macoun, Fuji, Honeycrisp.

When Eve picked that fruit, an apple now, it
Did not have a name yet and now it has
Many, each lending itself to different
Experience. When she bit into that
Apple, maybe the knowledge she unlocked
Wasn’t as simple as two words. Maybe
She opened up language to give us all
A more precise sense of what we will never know.