Friends in Eden

By Kaitlyn Sun

My friends are all in Eden

but the lilies died long ago.

The white moth wings peeled away

in Eucharist beneath an indigo 

cupola, inverted chalice, 

gold-trimmed and enclosing 

a once viridian vision, 

now reposing wasteland. 

The trees were once heavy 

with jungle jewels and the berries 

clustered like blastocysts.

You took the shape of a strange 

visitor in the rising mist

and I rose above the wilted dream.

My friends are all in Eden

and I am Eve

with the apple stain.

felled by the hand of Cain,

I woke to your snakeskin virtue. 

Beware!

Deadly nightshade grows in the garden.

I despise the garden variety people

with their garden variety lives,

a life and death in a cloistered hive

to contemplate suicide. I close my eyes—

Look!

How my garland of butterfly friends 

becomes a crown of thorns.

Kaitlyn Sun (she/her) is a Chinese-Australian, bisexual poet from Perth, Western Australia. She also goes by Sad Magical Girl. Kaitlyn has lived experience with mental health issues and her writing reflects on both her individual experiences as well as the broader brushstrokes of what it means to be human.

You can read more of her work on her Instagram page @sad.magical.girl