Three-Act Eden

first, i remember we
went running through new york 
at midnight, two shadows
seeing scaffolds splayed out like ladders
in orchards, ours for the taking
the glistening fruit at the top.

second, play-fighting in a 
hotel bed, faraway friend snoring in 
twisted-up rollaway sheets, and your arm 
around my neck. the gazelle 
between the lion’s teeth - but 
do prey animals like it?

third, forgetting day jobs darkest hour

before morning, jumping into the lake 

water pooling in the cupped palm of 
the city and after, wringing out
broken brassiere with my back turned,
ashamed of bareness.

Adora Svitak writes: At Berkeley, I majored in Development Studies and minored in Creative Writing and studied under Vikram Chandra, Kaya Oakes, and Joyce Carol Oates. In the past, I’ve contributed to the Women's Media Center, BUST, Edutopia, and the Gates Foundation blog. In my role at Berkeley's flagship social sciences research institute, Social Science Matrix, I write articles intended to make faculty research accessible to lay readers. My poetry experience has included contributing to the City of Redmond’s Centennial Poetry Anthology with a group of poets who met weekly for several months.