THE FALL OF MAN
Eve's Account
Apologise? No never! Yet to make clear
what happened, how it seemed, what came about,
that would erase the blurring edge of doubt
concerning motive, the impalpable smear.
Seduced by a snake? You must think me a fool.
Oh certainly he charmed and smarmed, but I
retained my balance, smiled to see him try
his frauds, those cheats aimed to make me his tool.
By reason led (God-given after all)
I figured that the fruit could not bring death:
the serpent ate and I watched him draw breath;
no apple caused that earth-bound snake to fall.
I weighed it mentally; the proscribed tree
would give me knowledge - worth a risk or two
to Adam's helpmeet, Adam's rib: it's true
that I was pleased the serpent first chose me.
And what was my restraint? Obedience!
The tamest virtue, bland and ignorant.
I chose to slough my role as sycophant,
flattering by aping his omniscience.
And so I ate and Adam followed suit,
then shopped me straightaway: that's when I knew
woman's peripheral and central too:
she might as well enjoy forbidden fruit.
Adam's Account.
She came towards me, carrying the fruit,
sparkling, euphoric, high on enterprise,
rebellion sat dazzling in her eyes,
enchantress, temptress, mistress absolute.
Of course I ate: I devoured her as well;
such carnal knowledge took us both by storm;
we'd shunned all sin, but when it took this form,
together locked, all wittingly, we fell.
I'd like to take a vote in self-defence,
a referendum of all future men,
and ask them, if I had that chance again,
should I have kept us all in innocence?
Think what that means, you heterosexual chaps.
Full frontal nudity! But all the time?
Not spiced by fig-leaves, stocking seams, hemline
revealing more forbidden fruit, perhaps.
I find her now entirely to my fancy,
my helpmeet then but now my concubine,
and faithful too, my Eve, forever mine -
not so! Till Death - but that adds piquancy.
I like the paradox, the contradiction;
she plays at purity, she leads me on,
her blushed are ambiguous: shame? or none?
there's paradise in her. She's my addiction.
Satan's Account
I reckon it my best job; after that
the tricks were just disseminated spores;
my favourites were the religious wars.
(At times I found the irony too pat.)
But Eve! There was a challenge to my skill.
I planned it all: first get her on her own,
then, all mellifluous my honeyed tone,
woo her, until, until she says, "I will."
There were a few bad moments when I thought
she'd turn away, and once she answered back,
applauding God's commandment like some claque.
But women do prefer "enjoy" to "ought."
I had to win: down there in burning Hell,
my street cred hung on it; as Lucifer,
I'd had no need of proof, none could compare,
but now mankind must fall, just as I fell.
I daren't tell Moloch that I'd failed again,
and see him gnash and fume - and all the rest,
Belial, Mammon, smirk, claim it was best
to make the most of Hell and say Amen.
Yet when she bit the fruit, that's when I knew
I'd lost, in fact: I'd stooped, I'd crawled, I'd wormed.
BUT - I could go to Hell, status confirmed.
A snake must do what a snake's got to do.
The Account of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil
I'm a fairly intellectual sort of cove,
more synapses than any other tree,
I'm strong in each branch of philosophy,
I was the smartest sapling in our grove.
So my opinion is worth listening to
since I was there right at its genesis:
I watched them fall from their original bliss,
and I have analysed the whole to-do.
Now God is said to have omnipotence,
omniscience too, but no-one that I know
thinks he's infallible; he's too gung-ho,
and I have come to doubt his prescience.
I'd like to take you through a syllogism:
if Adam and his spouse were ignorant
and had no knowledge - just a dose of cant -
it follows that they lacked the scepticism
required to see through Satan's dark intent.
Anterior insight into good and evil
is vital in disputing with the devil -
it seems to me a trifle negligent.
God should have realised free will IS free;
if what he wanted was predestination,
he could have built it into his creation,
or - better still - have left it all to me.
God's Account.
Next time I'll give the screw an extra twist:
all future worlds will be determinist.
To return to Home Page click here
Eve's Account
Apologise? No never! Yet to make clear
what happened, how it seemed, what came about,
that would erase the blurring edge of doubt
concerning motive, the impalpable smear.
Seduced by a snake? You must think me a fool.
Oh certainly he charmed and smarmed, but I
retained my balance, smiled to see him try
his frauds, those cheats aimed to make me his tool.
By reason led (God-given after all)
I figured that the fruit could not bring death:
the serpent ate and I watched him draw breath;
no apple caused that earth-bound snake to fall.
I weighed it mentally; the proscribed tree
would give me knowledge - worth a risk or two
to Adam's helpmeet, Adam's rib: it's true
that I was pleased the serpent first chose me.
And what was my restraint? Obedience!
The tamest virtue, bland and ignorant.
I chose to slough my role as sycophant,
flattering by aping his omniscience.
And so I ate and Adam followed suit,
then shopped me straightaway: that's when I knew
woman's peripheral and central too:
she might as well enjoy forbidden fruit.
Adam's Account.
She came towards me, carrying the fruit,
sparkling, euphoric, high on enterprise,
rebellion sat dazzling in her eyes,
enchantress, temptress, mistress absolute.
Of course I ate: I devoured her as well;
such carnal knowledge took us both by storm;
we'd shunned all sin, but when it took this form,
together locked, all wittingly, we fell.
I'd like to take a vote in self-defence,
a referendum of all future men,
and ask them, if I had that chance again,
should I have kept us all in innocence?
Think what that means, you heterosexual chaps.
Full frontal nudity! But all the time?
Not spiced by fig-leaves, stocking seams, hemline
revealing more forbidden fruit, perhaps.
I find her now entirely to my fancy,
my helpmeet then but now my concubine,
and faithful too, my Eve, forever mine -
not so! Till Death - but that adds piquancy.
I like the paradox, the contradiction;
she plays at purity, she leads me on,
her blushed are ambiguous: shame? or none?
there's paradise in her. She's my addiction.
Satan's Account
I reckon it my best job; after that
the tricks were just disseminated spores;
my favourites were the religious wars.
(At times I found the irony too pat.)
But Eve! There was a challenge to my skill.
I planned it all: first get her on her own,
then, all mellifluous my honeyed tone,
woo her, until, until she says, "I will."
There were a few bad moments when I thought
she'd turn away, and once she answered back,
applauding God's commandment like some claque.
But women do prefer "enjoy" to "ought."
I had to win: down there in burning Hell,
my street cred hung on it; as Lucifer,
I'd had no need of proof, none could compare,
but now mankind must fall, just as I fell.
I daren't tell Moloch that I'd failed again,
and see him gnash and fume - and all the rest,
Belial, Mammon, smirk, claim it was best
to make the most of Hell and say Amen.
Yet when she bit the fruit, that's when I knew
I'd lost, in fact: I'd stooped, I'd crawled, I'd wormed.
BUT - I could go to Hell, status confirmed.
A snake must do what a snake's got to do.
The Account of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil
I'm a fairly intellectual sort of cove,
more synapses than any other tree,
I'm strong in each branch of philosophy,
I was the smartest sapling in our grove.
So my opinion is worth listening to
since I was there right at its genesis:
I watched them fall from their original bliss,
and I have analysed the whole to-do.
Now God is said to have omnipotence,
omniscience too, but no-one that I know
thinks he's infallible; he's too gung-ho,
and I have come to doubt his prescience.
I'd like to take you through a syllogism:
if Adam and his spouse were ignorant
and had no knowledge - just a dose of cant -
it follows that they lacked the scepticism
required to see through Satan's dark intent.
Anterior insight into good and evil
is vital in disputing with the devil -
it seems to me a trifle negligent.
God should have realised free will IS free;
if what he wanted was predestination,
he could have built it into his creation,
or - better still - have left it all to me.
God's Account.
Next time I'll give the screw an extra twist:
all future worlds will be determinist.
To return to Home Page click here
