The Fruit Of Knowledge Poem by Kevin Patrick Brown

Fear clenched me in its ragged jaws, shaking all reason
from my mind, and as I fell into the dark hole of pain, I
was grabbing onto any small shred of hope, or feeling that
would save me and deliver me from my black fate.

I knew I would say anything to save myself, I would
knock three times and deny the truth, but then if I
had only known the truth; so - I used words as sharp
as razors, trying to hack my way free, let me breathe.

I roared and screamed as the pain I felt consumed
my very soul, and suddenly I knew I needed something
or someone to help me bear my pain, but all I saw
was the black face of fear, bearing the whip of loneliness.

I saw what I thought had been part of me walk away
as I tried to bestow some essence of truth and as I saw
that something of me go, I saw that it was not part of me
at all, and I wondered how it had stopped being of me.

The taste of knowledge can be poison or fruit, but can we
know before we open our frightened souls to draw in the taste
what the outcome will be? I saw the one who held the cure
for the poison I swallowed turn away, and I cried in fear and shame.

So I held my breath tightly and took stock of the weapons
I would need to use to gain my freedom, but was I convinced
of the need to fight for what I might already have? Suddenly
I awoke with a start, and the jaws of fear had changed.

I was held tight in the arms of the one who would love me always.
It had all been a dream. The strength of love prized the jaws of fear.