Adult Education
by Anna Evans
for David
An apple, she said, and I will teach
you how to build the bridge to reach
that island shore you wish to rule.
If you come willingly to school
we’ll carve the stones from concrete speech.
He saw himself upon that beach,
gave her a mango and a peach.
She sat him before her on a stool.
The apple, she said,
that Eve brought Adam, who tried to preach
they leave it whole—a story each
child knows. And so he guessed, no fool,
Grammar contained the only rules
his mistress had any qualms to breach.
That apple, she said.