Michelle Wright – After Eden: A Poetic Journey Into What Remains When Paradise Falls Silent
In The Caretaker, Michelle Wright turns her gaze toward one of the oldest stories we inherit: the Fall, the moment when Eden’s perfection collapses and humanity is cast into a world forever changed. But rather than retell the familiar account of Eve, desire, and punishment, Wright positions her poem in the uncanny stillness after the exile. Eden remains, but its blessed inhabitants have gone. Fruit hangs heavy and unwanted. Paradise is left to decay. Into this silence steps the Caretaker—a figure tasked with tending a place that no longer has a purpose, a witness to abandonment rather than innocence.
Wright’s fascination with Eve’s portrayal and the moral weight placed upon her has long shaped her thinking, and The Caretaker offers a subtle re-imagining of responsibility, guilt, and the burden of myth. By exploring what happens once the story has ended, she frees herself from the rigid frame of scripture and opens a space where nature, memory, and consequence coexist in uneasy tension. It is a poem about what remains—about the quiet rot that follows divine drama, and the unseen labour required to maintain a paradise that no longer serves its original design.
Michelle Wright brings more than two decades of writing, performing, and community work to her craft. A lover of words and collaborative spaces, she draws inspiration from Maya Angelou and Grace Nichols, and has worked alongside Liverpool greats such as Levi Tafari, Brian Patten, and Lemm Sissay. Her recent projects, including Poets For Peace and Quality of Mersey, centre on connection, compassion, and the power of shared storytelling. Now hosting Limoncello, an open night at Libertybell in Birkenhead, she champions creativity rooted in safety, joy, and collective voice. Her motto—“Make a joyful noise and people will be sure to listen”—echoes through this poem, even as it contemplates a paradise where joy has long since fled.
The Caretaker
Cleaning up after the fall,
My duties included: removing evidence, debris,
Forbidden blood-red apples,
Sucked dry, left to rot,
Like their Masters creation beyond Paradise,
Sin held securely, in a hessian sack,
Beyond the gaze of an all seeing eye,
I buried the rotten leftovers,
Of a lustily consumed feast,
Smelling sin on sticky fingers,
I too, felt tempted.
MICHELLE WRIGHT
