From The Gardener to The Gardened
Take me to the place where the woods grow thick,
where their eyes dilate as their movements quick.
Take me to the place where the flowers are picked,
where the fresh buds fade and the thorned stems prick.
Take me to the place where the tall trees flick
all the fresh fruit far from their fingertips.
Take me to the place where the rain runs slick
as the dogs cry out from their masters’ kicks.
Take me to the place where the girls grow sick
and another lover falls for a liar’s trick.
Take me to the place where the pups are plucked
from the womb of the bitch that the father fucked.
Take me to the place where their old bones crick,
where the bars weigh heavy and the cages don’t fit.
Take me to the place where the key tries to click
and open the lock with a touch and a lick.
Take me to the place where no candles are lit,
where they blew them all out when the apple was bit.
Take me to that place where it all began
with a boy and a girl and a fresh patch of land.
Take me to that place, to the ruins of Eden,
where the first girl fell, and they called her a heathen.
Tave Burnett is an undergraduate English and Politics student at The University of York. She hails from the North East and has previously been published in Cuckoo Chronicle and The York-Juba Anthology, which she is now the Editor of.
The Kindling 