Such lovely evasions they created,
with brushes dipped in poetry.
Their rivers flow serenely, skies
radiant as the face of God.
Their painted worlds are ruled
by beauty and the law of love,
ignoring the hardscrabble world below
ruled by the law of kill and eat.
All cruelty was banished
from their lexicon,
so we could see once more
all that we’ve lost of Eden.
