Cain's Dilemma
Evil broiled him changing his thoughts, and he perceived not
The slow desiccation of his mind, how his brain infected rot
From the poison of pride! More and more putrid he became
Despising his brother for doing good, and jealousy riled him
Into hatred darks vice, while self-willed that bright altar aflame
Stood scorned by disobedience, with false sacrifice: a grim
Portrait of man’s descent to sin: not even God’s awful voice
Could deter the barbarous design, Cain had made his choice.
Then innocent Abel came without questions or suspicions there
To offer up the all of self, an unblemished lamb that may repair
Vicariously his parents’ pagan practice, or alter man’s dark doom.
And where he knelt t pray the savage succubus of a sinful knife
Tore mercilessly through brotherly flesh, palling time with gloom.
O dreadful dead to innocence done, O impious devouring of life!
The treacherous act stained earth and time, and heckle our desire
Pinning us with the wicked weight of memory, and fearful fire.
And so forever on, that seed that Adam planted for his child
Grows in the jungle of human heart, and bitter fruits most vile
Is sucked in every age to come. Brothers against brothers, we
Become fiends of slobbering greed, despising poor and weak
In our haste for lucre’s filth and hegemony. O terrible tyranny,
Dungeon hearted, dismal man, murderer of the pure, so bleak
For you judgment growling at the end. O but worse, O Cain
The torment of the fire, the end of wickedness is eternal pain.
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