East of Eden

"But let us now, as in bad plight, devise

What best may for the present serve to hide

The Parts of each from other, that seem most

To shame obnoxious, and unseemliest seen,

Some Trees whose broad smooth Leaves together sew'd,

And girded on our loins, may cover round

Those middle parts, that this newcomer, Shame,

There sit not, and reproach us as unclean".

So counsell'd hee, and both together went

Into the thickest Wood, there soon they chose

The Figtree....

John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667), Book IX, lines 1091-1101.

Unknown –

Living bad to the bone

Thinking like a three year old child

Even though my body’s fully grown

Traded the very best 

For an absolute mess

Now the stress is gonna to kill me

While I’m breaking a sweat

Wet from the waist down

Because I’ve pissed away my future

Wife was dead wrong 

And the serpent’s a bad tutor 

Passed over the fruit of the vine

For knowledge not mine

Only to whine about the outcome

Because I fell for the lie

 

Hook, line and sinker

This shattered image is tanking my demeanor

Until a Fisher of men stepped in

And played the role of Redeemer

My disease was my disease –

Couldn’t see the garden for the tree

So I went from naked and unashamed

To using the foliage to cover me

Until it begins to wither away

In the heat of the day

And the ground is spitting up seeds

Because it’s starting to betray me

Reminds me of where I come from

And where I’ll be going 

We’re all keepers of a dirty little secret

With nothing to show for it

 

No “S” on my chest or bulletproof vest

Is going to stop the fate of a defective heart

And a mind covered in darkness

Living east of Eden for committing high treason

Forgetting all the while 

That we never had a good enough reason

To leave it all to chance

And face the coin toss 

To see who’d get to be the boss

In the land of the lost

Found by the Good Shepherd 

Because he paid the cost

To bring us into the fold

Never again to be tossed

 

Laid it all on the table

No Cain because he’s able

He truly is his brother’s keeper

And his hand is stable

The one true Prodigal

Who makes life eternal possible

By justification through his blood

For completely unworthy hostiles

 (Genesis 3)

Soli Deo Gloria,

Shon