SENESCENCE | KELLY DAVIO Recite to them the truth of the story of the two sons of Adam… Allah sent a raven, who scratched the ground, to show him how to hide the shame of his brother. The Quran, Sura 5:27, 31 Painters show them young: a bare-chested, hairy first son with a club of knotwood and a younger waif with no beard, a swath of lamb’s wool around meatless ribs. The hulk leads the small one to the field, palm working a grip in the fresh splinter of wood. But what if Cain were no young man—aged as long as first fathers are said to have lived, fresh at a century, tiring only after the second, and this was no lone flush of rage? Might hundreds of dry summers spent crouched at the soil have bent his back into a snug socket of ache? Could years have carved out the rock in him, have worn small rivers with that fine vintage of hate? The Suras tell us: to Abel went the prettier wife. To Abel the task of tending sheep— the only acceptable work of the hands. That Abel’s slaughtered lamb pleased the god who sent Cain to fields to coax tubers from dust. Who gave Cain the hunched gnat of a mate. That on the withered ends of Cain’s toil this same god cast a down-turned eye, then pointed Cain’s attention to the ravens clawing gouges in the earth, opening soil to worms that waited centuries for flesh in the land which cares nothing for us. Kelly Davio serves as Managing and Poetry Editor at The Los Angeles Review and reads poetry for Fifth Wednesday Journal. She is the author of Burn This House, forthcoming from Red Hen. Tip Jar | Bookstore WritersFund.htmlhttp://astore.amazon.com/contrary-20shapeimage_1_link_0shapeimage_1_link_1

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