Meanwhile in Enoch More Buildings Rise

What if the story
Of Cain and Abel
Were allegory?

It probably was
At the beginning,
Farmer and herder,

Although it seems strange
That it’s the farmer
Who’s sent wandering.

But time’s always ripe
For table turning
In storytelling.

Say Abel was flesh,
Flesh the offering,
And Cain was culture,

The cultivator.
Let God stand for life.
Abel puts himself

On the altar. Life
Is pleased. Life eats life.
But Cain is displeased.

Why does life eat flesh?
Why does life love death?
Cain seizes Abel

To steal him from life.
It doesn’t work. Life
Makes Cain an outcast.

Ah, but there’s a twist.
Life doesn’t kill Cain.
Culture’s mark persists.

So there you have it.
The body must die,
But the thoughts wander.