Paradise Revisited

a poem by Jan Oskar Hansen

When I went to my secret cove for an afternoon swim,
a nude lovely woman and her boxer dog
came up from the sea.
I apologised and turned to leave.
“No” she said. ‘ Please stay’.
Put a towel around her slender waist
and sat down in the warm sand.
Her playful dog wagged its tail,
drooled and wanted me to throw a stick, which I did;
far into the blue yonder.
The dumb animal swam
and swam till it was caught by a strong under current
and disappeared.
The woman, no longer beautiful,
but a skeleton covered by ulcerated skin,
threw herself on top of me.
Her open tooth-less mouth
stank of a thousand ejaculations
screaming obscenities, cursing God;
and, in a last orgasmic agony, turned to dust.
I had been seduced by Eve’s ancient sin.
In the cool breeze, rippled sea
I rinsed my soul.