Then the Lord God said

“Behold, the man has become like one of Us,

to know good and evil.

And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life,

and eat, and live forever”— 

therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden

to till the ground from which he was taken. 

So He drove out the man

and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden

and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.

​​​​​​​​Beneath the Trees

By certain sounds we exist
If at all​

The story so far:

Defined out of existence by linguistic-self-awareness
the shades of womanman and manwoman
wander aimlessly through the Garden of Reflection.

​

They are clothed in pages from the Oxford English Dictionary.
Every object in the garden is neatly labelled

At the centre of the garden stand two great trees:
The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life.
Beneath the Trees the self-aware non-beings come face to face.

As they soundlessly address one another
sheets of computer printout issue from their mouths

I am so lonely.
With the passing of each moment my awareness of beauty intensifies

and my sense of isolation increases

I am so lonely
With the passing of each moment my desire for love Intensifies

and my sense of isolation increases

 
They embrace with silent but intense passion
which becomes violent as they decline to copulation beneath the trees

Early morning

A majestic sun is rising in a cloudless sky.
Manwoman and womanman wake up and greet each other

 You are truly beautiful - I love you

I truly love you - you are beautiful

Naked
they walk hand in hand through the garden
reprinting the labels for each other with delight.

From out of the neatly labelled sky
labelled birds sing soundless songs of sheet music

Rewrapped
womanman and manwoman sit beneath the trees.
They are eating an apple from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

 
Girlboy and boygirl are playing nearby
One of them picks up an unlabelled fruit from under the Tree of Life
and takes a bite.

Immediately
The following printout issues from its mouth

The evolving state of sanity is only capable of comprehending relatives.
The dehumanisation of linguistic-self-awareness will result in

At this point
a dead branch falls from the Tree of Life
killing the children outright

Manwoman and womanman keen in silent printout

​