Читать книгу The Book of Duels - Michael Garriga - Страница 12

Cain, 19, Farmer

With the wind in my teeth I howl the first poetry of the world and call each unnamed and new experience the thing it shall be called and I bring forth from the very earth the fruit of my labor conjured so by song—and so it is and so it is good—and I break the earth that God hath made and I plant the seed that God hath given unto me and I adore the sun and I adore the rain and I adore the wind and cry: You, you shall be called emmer and you shall be fava and you, barley, and this the scythe and that the harvest, and I will continue so, even as God shuns my offering and even as my brother turns on me and pushes me into the earth where I spin and smash his head, over and over, until he lies in the dirt and there he dies and I call it murder.

As I stand in the sun, the flint blade still red in my hand, my own blood runs down my neck and soaks my tunic and my brother’s blood seeps into the mouth of mother earth and my dark skin begins to throb and brighten and glow an ungodly white and I hear His voice again, There is thy mark upon thee, Cain, for all to know thee by thy deed.