So, In the Beginning

A man and a woman made love in a garden
with the sweetest fruit fresh in their mouths
and the fragrance of every flower surrounding them
as they lay together in plush grass
under the shade of a forbidden tree.

Not one of us has been born
without the taste of Heaven’s sweet
skinned fruit
rivaling on our tongues
with the taste of salty
slick flesh.

I won’t lie.
As you and I tried
the first time
I didn’t know whether to pray
or to deny all prayer,
so I bit my lip and held on to you
like a child.

Afterwards
in the mirror
my eyes glowed
like a garden after the first summer rain
when leaves shine and flowers
open.

by Carly T. Flynn

Carly T. Flynn, a poet living outside New Orleans, is currently working on her first collection. She is a 2015 graduate of Pacific University’s Master of Fine Arts program, and she’s previously been published in Borderlands Texas Poetry Review, Down to the Dark River: An Anthology of Poems about the Mississippi River, and Manchac Review.