Once upon a time,

and a very good time it was,

God walked in the garden shooting the breeze

with Adam and Eve.

 

In the cool of the day he walked

with them in the garden.

Eve and Adam were naked,

and I suspect he was, too –

he’d have to be —

it would have been too awkward otherwise.

 

We have no record as to what they talked about –

the symphony of birdsong,

the perfume of the never fading flowers,

the always perfectly ripe fruit hanging like ornaments in the golden light?

 

That was before the fratricide

and the subsequent drowning of the puppies and kittens

followed by the sad days of fruit rottened and raptors shrieking,

the reeking carcasses bloating.

 

Knowledge, begetting, circumcision, covenants, sacrifices, oracles, famines, plagues, deserts, laws, kings, concubines, wars . . .

 

Much later, according to the Hebrew arrangement of scrolls, God spoke his last words to man, addressed to Job, regarding the awesomeness of whales.