eden

I saw Eden once in a very ordinary way.

There was a sun, a moon to come, or at least half of it
a creek that flowed from west to east
in the grass an unblemished yellow plum.

There was a door that I stepped through
but it was only glass and metal and it slid to the side
as I came from my library to the back of the house.

There was a blue kingfisher that watched the creek
but it did not dive
and it did not kill.

At the edge of the bank I looked down
at my son and daughter
and a friend with a ball cap and a small smile.

They were catching fish with nets
and placing them in buckets of creekwater
and naming them.

The children waded up to their hips
and the three of them found a snake
pretending to be a dead stick.

They lifted it in their hands unafraid
and spoke to it
and named it.

I cannot think of what else to say to recommend the day.

The snake was returned to the creek unharmed
all the buckets emptied
and the nets left to dry.

There was a cool jade diving plunge over my body and head
silver hurling from palm to palm
between daughter and son and friend.

There was an evening and a climb up the bank
with nets and sandals and sticks
looking forward to food and drink and a good story.

There was someone else now that I remember.

I was distracted by a leaf that dropped at my feet
green, orange, brown, spotted
veined elaborately

and one perfect curving stem.