Friday, May 18, 2018

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.

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