Sunday, 28 June 2026

Five Poems by Ken Gosse

 






More Than Once Upon A Time

 

On the first day of spring Adam found he was sprung

(an amazing physique which was very well hung)

but he hadn’t a clue what that one piece was for

till a rib was removed and was tossed on the floor

(or the ground, we should say, since it wasn’t a room—

without roof, doors, or windows, no need to assume

that a visiting neighbor would soon make a call—

there was no need for privacy, none for a wall

in those days before anyone else would arrive)

then he noticed his spare rib had started to thrive.

 

On the first day of summer, young Eve came around,

more lithesome and lovely than all else he found

and he noticed another bone rising in awe,

overwhelmed by the shape of the creature he saw.

The hint of her smile would entice his first grin

and he sensed what he thought was original—sin—

when she reached for an apple and offered a bite

as they fell to the ground where they spent their first night.

 

The first fall arrived with their fall before dawn

(the seasons were young; summer came and was gone)

but the sunrise that day brought a chill to the air

and the garden they lay in was suddenly bare

because winter had brought the first fall to its close

and the cold, not their shame, showed them they needed hose,

pants, and shirts, even hats to protect their bare breasts,

thighs and nethers and heads, from their toes to their crests

as they headed out east in their search for fresh loam.

Where the first day had dawned, they might find a new home.

 

Soon, spring sprung again as did women and men

from the body of Eve since they still had a yen

for the apple they tasted upon their first date—

hence an orchard was first to put food on their plate.

They tilled and they toiled, they roasted and boiled

the food that was needed to feed their new brood

but it seems that today, though they each had their way,

their descendants condemn that first coupling as lewd. 


 

What’s Needin’ in Eden

 

We don’t know their first position,

although there’s a supposition

that a serpent had directed

what the two had long suspected

was the purpose of the difference

seen between their legs, vociferance

shouting what design made clear—

that two of them should gather near,

discover what it’s all about

and learn both inside and without

why they’re alike yet not the same,

as if designed to play a game

by taking hold of parts unknown

of which the two had both been shown

before they gave a fig or two

to hide behind what they now knew

was waiting there without disguise

while his, of course, to their surprise

had learned to stand up and to prance,

and so, they chose to take a chance

and taste the fruit beneath the trees

where they would play like birds and bees. 


 

The World’s First Picnic (in 50 Words)

 

They used Adam’s sparerib to fix

a companion to serve him picnics.

The very first one that Eve made

offered apples and fig marmalade.

Just one bite of apple

would cause them to grapple

and once Adam’s eye

noticed Eve’s breast and thigh,

her buffet was the first ever laid. 


 

Fishing in the Eastern Sea (50 words)

 

Since they didn’t get a pardon

and they had to leave the garden,

do you wonder how long Adam

took to find himself a madam,

and while wand’ring east of Eden,

looking for what he was needin’,

while fair Eve played him the cuckold,

did he wonder why she chuckled? 


 

Hayseeds

 

Morning had broken

when Eve was woken

by the first dawning of a new day.

East of the garden,

begging none’s pardon,

once Adam sowed, they rolled in the hay.






 

Ken Gosse usually writes short, rhymed verse using whimsy and humor in traditional meters. First published in First Literary Review–East in November 2016, he has also been published by Pure Slush, Home Planet News Online, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, and others. Raised in the Chicago, Illinois, suburbs, now retired, he and his wife have lived in Mesa, AZ, for over twenty years, usually with rescue dogs and cats underfoot.

 

 


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Five Poems by Ken Gosse

  More Than Once Upon A Time   On the first day of spring Adam found he was sprung (an amazing physique which was very well hung) bu...