Blurred Leaves in the Foreground

Harold Witt

The first time it looked different-
blurred leaves in the foreground
while sharpfocused lovers strolled hand in hand
or ran through the garden behind-
the green frame or screen relating,
especially as color got better
the truer to nuance and shading,
an Eden to the mind.

Nude without being naked,
and new as the leaves implied,
the lovers could go in the garden
where angles were green and wide,
swinging along to the music
of Mozart or some other tune
and God wasn't needed or lions with lambs
to show how they felt inside.

Then like most innovations
repeated time after time-
if there ever had been a meaning,
it changed as if for a rhyme-
the lovers were always in focus
and the foreground blurred as they came
fresh from fruit tasting, into God's eye,
covered with leaves, like shame.