Eden Before Adam

Gail White

There were the animals to make: Giraffes,

elephants, camels, kangaroos (for laughs),

a host of birds, a weltering of snakes,

a clutch of happy herbivores (it takes

all kinds to make a world) and then the whales,

the starfish, kraken, jellyfish and snails.

God loved them all, but most the ones with fur,

pleasant to touch, the white of miniver

and ermine, black of panther – He would not

miss the lost angels while he had this lot.

He looked about and saw that all was good:

Angels might fall but rabbits never would.

To crown it all, there was a Persian cat.

Perfection! If He’d only stopped at that.

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Gail White is a formalist poet whose totem animal is the cat, as evidenced by her chapbook of cat poetry, Catechism. She lives in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, where she currently owns two cats and feeds three others.

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Eden Before Adam Gail White

Eden Before Adam

Gail White