Cain and Abel

poetry

Monty Python’s Life of Brian, for educational purposes

Cain and Abel

It’s not that he doesn’t understand.
The commandments are simple.
It’s just that his nature
is a bush running wild 
with stems of fire
he cannot contain.

And so this is how
Cain slew Abel.

And for his punishment
he received the weight of the world.
Every dawn he pushed it up a mountain.
Every dusk it rolled back on him.

Till finally he sincerely repented.
And this is how Abel was
returned to him.

Not as the man he was
but every man in the world.
And with all men as brothers
Cain figured the weight
wouldn't be so much.

But when he took his message
of brotherhood to the top of the hill
several fights broke out below
some arguing over the price

of beer and hot dogs, others 
the size of noses, lack of
vegan choices, and whose
invisible father would win
in a bar fight.

A horned animal, part rept, 
part phib, part mammal, mounts 
a lily, his tiny little human hands 
caressing his genitals, his 50-foot 
tongue hovering over a dreaming 
pond, like a question.

How might we transform
a base, rapacious nature
into a merciful, gentle wind
that might extinguish
the burning bush forever?