Indelible.
With Eden gone I can still catch its traces
in trilling of larks, in open faces
of clifftop thrift, in lizard\'s shelled skins
and the soft sound waves make
on pebbles as their white bonnets break.
Though Paradise did not remain I perceive
its irrefutable gifts in ripe fields,
at harvest bounty, in revived flowers
after rain and mild heat
of autumnal sun on fruiting orchard trees.
Though Heaven\'s garden no more exists
I see it\'s whispered persistence
in the thrust of a puppy\'s friendly paw,
in fawn\'s eyes and fish fins
aflame with fluorescent scales lit by liquid.
With Eden now disappeared I might hear
it still in wild foxy shrieks
in owl\'s eerie cry, in hedgehog snuffles
and in rabbit\'s high leaps
of rapture as Spring invites him to breed.
Despite Eden\'s loss such faultless design
marks indelible time behind
every heartbeat found inside nature
and hides in events alive
with amazement to a poet\'s awed mind.