If Adam Had Rejected Eve
All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. John 1:3
No finger ring could hold the type of rose
Called peony, so rings adorned with gems
Are substitutes. These glints are cheapest prose,
Not poetry at all. That blossom’s hems
From Jesus Christ’s own hand and pinking shears
Are prettier than finest tulle and wait
For other jewels, the dew like Adam’s tears
If he had left his Eve to meet her fate,
Her fruit-stained fate because of juice on lips.
His jewel, this Eve, could never quite have been
As beautiful, despite her fruit-shaped hips,
As lovely as a peony, Christ’s queen.
A necklace could not be as pendant proud
As peonies with petal dewdrops bowed.
~ Phillip Whidden