Abel or Cain I

After I John 3:11-24

It is a story, to be sure,

a story as old as the time

it comes from, near the beginning,

a story of two brothers, one

with his lamb and one

with his harvest offering,

and it’s puzzling because

at first glance the two offerings

seem roughly equivalent,

don’t they, and yet they’re not,

one being acceptable

and the other being less so,

and so one kills the other,

strikes the other down

in anger, in pain, in shame,

in jealousy, a hatred

that left a mark, that

always leaves a mark.

Photograph by Bonnie Kittle via Unsplash. Used with permission.