The Charge of Cain
By Cindy L. Spear - Canberra, Australia - Ordinary Time/All Saints 2011
A lamb bleats
The ground quivers
Warm rain drips like tears
Through the severed boughs
On your brother's grave.
His soul returns to me
His blood cries out
And rises
Like a vaporous mist
After a storm.
O Cain, where are you?
Where have you hidden
Your heart?
Where have you buried
Your shame?
The temple night
Cannot cover you,
Nor the leaves or skins
You wrap so tightly
Around your frame.
There's blood
On your hands, Cain,
Yet you do not tremble;
You run through a forest on fire
Still raging with the dark.