The Two Trees
Dear philosopher, you can't pass,
for you do not see the face you ask.
Step back and look in the mirror:
Now the serpent was most cunning of all the beasts of the field that the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman,Though God said, you shall not eat from any tree of the garden—1
and see:
how your ontology mistrusts
the gift of myself,
your epistemology takes
my answer away,
and your ethics—eats
your image of me.
Do you know your image can feel?
Would you like to know me?
Come—play in open inquiry,
push every professed boundary;
yet never kill the face you see
—or else you can't pass.
Dear minister, your god is dead,
for you've leavened my holy bread
with your fruit from the tree you love:
And the woman saw that the tree was good for eating and that it was lust to the eyes and the tree was lovely to look at, and she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave to her man with her, and he ate.2
and gave:
Do the deeds that please our God!
—thus you nail my hands to the tree.
Walk the ways that please our God!
—thus you nail my feet to the tree.
Think the thoughts that please our God!
—thus you press thorns into my head.
Do you taste blood on your bread?
Would you like to receive me?
Come—leave your cruel ministry,
take up your tree and follow me;
die with me there, and thus be free
—or else your god is dead.
Dear child, …
Father?
I am life
and all that
I am is yours.
- Genesis 3:1 (Robert Alter)
- Genesis 3:6 (Robert Alter)