Unseen

A short poem inspired by Genesis 4

I wonder how he felt
a pre-destined tale,
never chosen,never seen.

Do you think he wondered,
folded his small hands
till they ached and reddened,
hoping for a miracle?

I wonder what his life was like
did he ever feel outside his own body,
floating away from a dream that would not hold him?

Do you think he asked
why he was invisible,
yet the one after him was like a ray of light?
Why he was hard to see,
and the other wasn’t?

I wonder if he still hoped,
listened to tales of the Lord
blessing the unluckiest, small glimmers
emerging in his desolate heart.

Surely, he thought,
I am not doomed after all.
Doomed to live as “the other brother,”
a fallen hero before he ever began.

Do you think when he brought his goods
he counted his good deeds
like the stones he gathered,
certain they would be enough?

Do you think his heart dropped
when he saw the altar,
when he saw that even God
had chosen someone else?

I wonder whether his rage was a slow fire,
a lifetime of being second,
of being called difficult,
strange, never quite right.

Maybe the field was not the beginning.
Maybe it was only the end
of a boy who learned too early
what it means
to be unseen.

Author’s Note:

I have always been fascinated by the people in stories we are taught not to feel sorry for. Cain is remembered for his worst act, I wanted to imagine the boy he might have been before the world decided who he would become. Because before he became a lesson, he was a boy standing beside his brother, hoping to be chosen too.

This poem wonders about that boy.