Dorothy Sayers, Mystery Writer

In the beginning, there was a loaded tree,
two bodies, romantic intrigue and a God.
Obedience is the catalyst. Satan
is the villain, but we are the who dunnit,
playing like orphan children in a garden.

It is true that all good stories involve orphans,
the early abandoned. We love their lack
of loneliness, their stalwart adaptability.

My daughters play that the mud is soup,
the treehouse a boxcar. They tell me how
they came to be here, growing wild
as if sprung up from the dust, or taken,
gently, from a bone.