New Eden Ghazal

shall bar me welcome but for common bread broken? For water from the river’s head? For a long and patient obedience to the same road? What sweet experience of one foot that follows after the last with burdens abandoned and mountains passed. ß Phillip Aijian Author biography Phillip Aijian earned an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Missouri and is currently pursuing a PhD in English at the University of California, Irvine, where he studies Shakespeare’s politics and theology. His poems have been published in ZYZZYVA, St. Katherine Review, Poor Yorick, and Princemere. He lives with his wife, guitars, and cat in Fullerton, California, and is slowly assembling material for a third studio album.Poetry New Eden Ghazal The life of like mind filled with all notions replete Plants a new arboretum that makes me complete. This garden with the guy smells luscious and so ripe, But the slick slithering I hear snakes me complete. Take! Eat! You will not die. That’s what he told me, and Look at me still standing. The lie fakes me complete. One minute on the lips, a lifetime on the hips And on the knees, sobbing. Regret aches me complete. 506 Christianity & Literature 64(4) I did not make this mistake alone, but I was The only one fooled. One huge tear lakes me complete. Apple-picking season has come again, and soon The dead leaves cover me. My man rakes me complete. I peel, and I chop. I add brown sugar and cloves. The latticed pie in the oven bakes me complete. Cider can be sharp or sweet. I take one glass each. The Edenic tang on my tongue slakes me complete. The knowledge of good and evil whirs blended with Crushed ice. This innocent cocktail shakes me complete. Here we are again, redeemed from the curse. Let us Say so. Let us pray. The King James spake me complete. I believe, babe. Help thou my unbelief. The son Of Adam who takes Eve’s heiress takes me complete. ß Anne Babson Author biography Anne Babson’s collection of poetry The White Trash Pantheon (Vox Press, 2015) and her latest chapbook Poems Under Surveillance (Finishing Line Press, 2013) are both available in independent bookstores and on Amazon. She was included in the recent anthology Imago Dei: Poems from Christianity and Literature (Abiline Christian University Press, 2012). Her work has been anthologized both in the UK and the US in other publications, and she has appeared in over one hundred literary journals on five continents. Poetry 507 ...