The first day in the garden, God was
an immigrant who planted gulls
in clouds. Even the smallest
leaflet untangled
solar filaments with prudence
dissimilar to fire.
Did Adam first teach God the word
for sew or word for plunder?
What tenderness people show—it matters
the recipient is visible.
The apple lacked grammar
for red, or fall.
The world pulled it.
It pulled the world back.
Paul Hlava Ceballos has received fellowships from CantoMundo, Artist Trust, and the Poets House. His work has been published in Poetry Northwest, BOMB, the PEN Poetry Series, Narrative Magazine, the LA Times, among other journals and newspapers, has been translated to the Ukrainian and nominated for the Pushcart. His chapbook, Banana [ ]: A History of the Americas, is coming out in 2021 from The 3rd Thing Press. He has an MFA from NYU and currently lives in Seattle, where he practices echocardiography.
