Eden Again

I came across two lovers on a lawn,  
looking very hard at one-another
and the one said to the other
and the other to the one

and silence reigned between them;
and they laughed for sheer delight;
and kissed so beautifully the earth stopped in its track
and history itself gaped in surprise.

Then the serpent slithered up,
its cold against my ankle.
Yesss! it hisses, well done!
a singularity. Another 

fucking singularity. For the nth time
when the sun warms these two
it warms the world. Nothing else is
or ever was since the discovery of human lips.

Let's disabuse them.
But before I can shout run for your lives!
a soft hand cups my face,
chin to forehead and practiced fingers 

ply my jaws and cheeks until
the clever tendons that manipulate 
my eyes, my lips, my tones, my emphases, 
convey the snake's understanding.

Suddenly, horror-struck, the lovers
turn to bronze and marble.
To this day they populate
our parks, boulevards and greenways.