Poem: “Good God”

By Mark Jarman

Instead of casting them out of Paradise,
Instead of making them labor in pain and sweat,
Instead of instilling tristesse after coitus,
Instead of giving them fire to burn their house down,

And light their way into the outer world,

He could have split them, each with a memory of the other,
And put them each into a separate world.

“Good God” from Bone Fires: New and Selected Poems. © Copyright 2011 by Mark Jarman. Reprinted with the permission of The Permissions Company.  Inc., on behalf of Sarabande Books, www.sarabandebooks.org.