Biting

An apple bit by woman caused our grief

So ordinary yet an act of will.

To  think if she had merely bit the leaf

Sweet  holiness would surround each human still.

When Sylvia  bit  Ted  Hughes upon his cheek

She marked him for her future appetites.

Consciously she   looked for  kind love  sweet

But marked him more for  evil  in her rite.

Jonah was not bitten by the whale

Which let him hide inside her womb-like form

And so he was allowed in her to sail

Until his calling  hearkened him go home.

Biting wit and words can also cause much grief,

As caterpillars feast upon a  leaf..