In the search for thornless roses
and the perfect apple pie,
many a question poses
and many reasons why.

Seedless grapes are on the plate
(though cloudless summers have to wait).
They’ll cut your leg off without pain
(though Abel still meets brother Cain).

There are as yet no snake-less Edens;
and the Heathens kill for God
(though only the House of Islam
does not find this odd).

They tattoo your arms with Saxon runes
and give you Chinese eyes
and blow your breasts up like balloons.
And yet, still, everybody dies.

The sun shines from the heavens.
The shadows fall on earth.
It may be, as the Greeks said,
“Avoid, at all cost, birth!”

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