God sat between them on the log.
"And why," God asked,
"did I want you ignorant
of the difference
between good and evil?"

Frogs croaked in the pond.

Eve thought hard:
"But don't we need to know what is good
so we can do good?"

Adam asked,
"And don't we need to know what is evil
to avoid evil?" 

God sighed.
"I knew how much time and energy you'd waste
arguing over the difference,
creating divisions,
making yourselves and those around you miserable
with your incessant, senseless analysis.
If it had mattered,
I would have given you such knowledge
in the beginning."

God paused and stared forward through the ages,
sadness clouding the divine face:
"Now we will spend generations
trying to return to the innocence
of non-distinction,
before evil,
before good,
when things simply were."

Text and image © 2012 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.