Temptation

Do not
eat the apple
don’t look upon
its round redness
do not dream
of how it would feel
to tear
into its flesh
the snap of its skin
under your teeth
the perfume of it
filling your nostrils

don’t lie down
in the long grass
and imagine the
taste of it
until your tongue
curls up
to the roof of your mouth
and the rain
can no longer
slake your thirst

in the tree
it hangs
at hand height
what kind of god
would place it there
and then say
for eternity
it is forbidden

unless it was
to watch you break
slowly
in a war with yourself
that is impossible
to win.

John Roddam Spencer Stanhope - The Temptation of Eve

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