New World
Then after Eden,
was there one surprise?
O yes, the awe of Adam
at the first bead of sweat.
Thenceforth, all flesh
had to be sown with salt,
to feel the edge of seasons,
fear and harvest
joy that was difficult,
but was, at least, his own.
The snake? It would not trust
on its forked tree.
The snake admired Labour,
it would not leave him alone.
And both would watch the leaves
silver the alder,
oaks yellowing October,
everything turning money.
So when Adam was exiled
to our new Eden, in the ark’s gut,
the coined snake coiled there for good
fellowship also; that was willed.
Adam had an idea.
He and the snake would share
the loss of Eden for a profit.
So both made the New World. And it looked good.
.
by Derek Walcott:
from Collected Poems 1948-1984
Farrar, Straus & Giroux