After Jheronimus Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights

Adam is short a rib, but now has a plus-one
for garden parties.  He reclines, surprisingly relaxed
after the ultimate outpatient procedure,
on the grass while the Creator takes Eve’s pulse—
must be sure everything is working as it should.
Eve the Rib is uncertain, eyes downcast.
It must be the uneven terrain
that forces her knees to the ground,
because surely these gentlemen
would never refuse to offer assistance
or comfort in this unfamiliar place.  Surely
the Creator would take her hand
with divine and dazzling warmth,
help her find her footing.  But Adam’s toes
tangle in the Creator’s robes like a playful child
and it is Capital-H-He who holds Adam’s gaze.
Even the rabbit, already granted his partner,
turns an indifferent tail to this farce
just beginning to be written.

Issa M. Lewis is the author of Infinite Collisions (Finishing Line Press, 2017). She is the 2013 recipient of the Lucille Clifton Poetry Prize and a runner-up for the 2017 Lois Cranston Memorial Poetry Prize. Her poems have previously appeared in The Banyan Review, Linden Avenue Literary Journal, Split Rock Review, Wraparound South, and Naugatuck River Review, amongst others.