CASTING

If Paradise Lost was an old movie
Ralph Bellamy would be Adam
The audience would expect
Lucifer and Eve to share
A kiss before the film
Discretely faded out.

RECASTING

In some world where they do things better

Paradise Lost is a comedy, ending in a marriage

The evidence is all there: Eve and Satan

Were meant for each other. Milton could not

Conceal the strength of their attraction;

Satan softens when he sees her, almost forgetting

Who he is; she hears music when he speaks.

Adam means well, but is the fiance foisted on Eve –

The role Ralph Bellamy plays as he waits

For Cary Grant to cut him out again –

In Act Last, God would play out his role:

The Angry Father Who Finally Forgives

And blesses the errant lovers. Jesus, I think,

Would do well as the wily servant who sets things right.

After the climax, we might see Sin and Death

Performing their vaudeville routines

Which somehow never grow old.

ON INNIS BOFFIN

Because they are so very old
Adam and Eve have become birds
On the island of Innis Boffin.
Since this is part of Ireland
There are no serpents. Adam
Has given some thought
To being human once more
But wishes he could run his plan
By Satan whose advice always
Led to interesting results. Eve,
Though, refuses to travel.





T.F. Thistleton Dyer feels that the birds which used to be Adam and Eve are eagles. This strikes me as unlikely. Wrens or herons, perhaps. Quite possibly. a pair of sooty shearwaters -- a species which has been known to go insane and allegedly inspired Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds.  Just thought you'd like to know.