[theoptia]

Valzhyna Mort, from Music for the Dead and Resurrected: Poems; “Genesis”

Text ID: I’ve always preferred Cain. / His angry / loneliness, his / lack of mother’s / love, his Christian / sarcasm: “Am I / my brother’s keeper?” / asks his brother’s murderer. / Aren’t we indeed / the keepers of our dead?

[nathanielorion]

הבל | hevel

This is how it goes: God whispers in Cain’s jealous ear, drawing his attention to the Sin crouched at his doorway. Sin has haunted eyes and a mouth that has been kissed. Let there be no doubt that Sin has been kissed, with a wet-red mouth that may taste of blood or pomegranate or the electric crackle of a stoplight. Cain looks at Sin. He runs his tongue over his teeth.

This is how it goes: Cain leaves the house at one am in bare feet and a hoodie, careful to avoid the last stair that creaks, and treks out into the Field. There are many fields in the world but there is only one Field. Cain feels the difference in the grass when he crosses the border from field to Field, the way the grey-green blades stand up at attention in his wake, the way the dirt turns ice-cold and furious beneath his heels. The earth is good with foreshadowing. The tree of Knowledge has deep roots.

This is how it goes: God says, I will take you or your brother.

God says, You get to choose.

And Cain says, “When you split me and my brother in the womb, you did not divide us evenly. He got kindness, and I got longing. He got complacence, and I got ambition. I want to kill him sometimes. I think sometimes he wants to die.”

I have never made brothers before, God explains. That is how I thought they were made. What more do you want?

“I want to steal some of his kindness,” Cain says, and shakes his pocket knife out of his sleeve.

Back at home, Abel sits up in his bed with a start, heart racing. That was close, he thinks, that was a damn close one, and does not know why.

In the Field, the ground warms as blood seeps into the dirt. 

[damnelves]

MY BROTHER / MY KILLER

"The King James Bible, Genesis 4 / "Black Leopard, Red Wolf" by Marlon James / "Car Crash" by Jenna Andersen / "Stratis Thalassinos Among the Agapanthi" by George Seferis (tr. by Edmund Keeley) / "You are Jeff" by Richard Siken (1) / "Brother" by The Rural Alberta Advantage / "A Brother named Gethsemane" by Natalie Diaz / "Succession" Script (1) / "You are Jeff" by Richard Siken (2) / "Cain Killing Abel" by Pietro Novelli / "The Death of Abel" by Gustave Doré (1866), recolored / "Lupa" by Matthew Nienow / Succession, S04 EP 10, "With Open Eyes" / "My Sister's Keeper" by Jodi Picoult / “Mirror Traps” by Hera Lindsay Bird / post by tumblr user vampowers / "Antigone", tr. by Anne Carson / "6 ways to draw a circle" by tumblr user filmnoirsbian / "Succession" Script (2) / "Courage, Anxiety and Despair Watching The Battle" by James Sant (detail) / "The Plagues", Prince of Egypt, dir. by Brenda Chapman / untitled poem by tumblr user nathanielorion (1) / "After Abel" by Dante Émile / comment from tiktok / "Famous Blue Raincoat" by Leonard Cohen / "For my unnamed brother" by Toi Derricotte / Succession screenshot / untitled, Sue Zhao / untitled poem by tumblr user nathanielorion (2)

[colakills]

on being a "good brother"

@butchdykekondraki || you are the beginning - the family crest || a house in nebraska- ethel cain || cop car- mitski || goodbyes by anonymous on ao3

[ladybugpdf-deactivated20250512]

grieving cain by june hart

[orpheuslament]

After Abel, Dante Émile

[orpheuslament]

[text ID:

Two brothers in a field are enough for the tragedy to start.  The Lord says bring me something worthwhile & the boy puts his hands to task. Mother used to say I had a gift for it. I was my father’s son, I envied the way flowers grew.  Cain takes a swig at his vodka & tonic & shows you the scar on his forehead. He tells you he’s picked up some Spanish in his travels, signals to the waiter and says me & my brother, you see, we were uña y carne.  This is what happens when God slips between two sleeping bodies,  he ruins them. 

Who kills their own brother? Well, someone who loves him very much. He makes of womb an altar & prays I have shed for you the truth of life. Could you please bring him back? 

Abel was the slaughterer, I only watered the plants.   He orders another drink. God wants blood, he says, blood & regret. So I handed him my heart. 

When they were little Cain would sit on the porch & listen to the trees grow.  Something about the quietness of creation. When you love a lamb, you hold its neck while you bleed it. Cain raises his arm & pleads: Close your eyes. /end ID]

[shivroygirls]

KENDALL AND SHIV ROY as CAIN & ABEL;

josé saramago / a brother named gethsemane by natalie diaz / after abel by dante émile / jonathan goldstein, ladies and gentlemen, the bible! / cain kills abel by gustave doré / the bible / succession scripts / josé saramago / the orphan and its relations by elizabeth robinson / famous blue raincoat by leonard cohen.

[orpheuslament]

Cain, José Saramago (trans. Margaret Jull Costa)

[many-sparrows]

Jewish Literacy, Rabbi Joseph Telushkin. Image taken from @gnnosis post

[orpheuslament]

Cain, José Saramago (trans. Margaret Jull Costa)

[texaschainsawmascara]

for the ones who don’t have great sibling relationships all those other posts talk about

Clive Baker / Succession / Joshua A. Krisch / Cain Kills Abel / Natalie Diaz / Shameless / Richard Siken / Sharp Objects x / Jenny Han / The Other Boleyn Girl / Jane Mersky Leder / The Haunting of Hill House x / Succession x2 / Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke - Eric Larocca / Silver Linings Playbook / Boy Meets World / Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 / Ginger Snaps / Scream 4

[literaturereads]

"And Cain says, “When you split me and my brother in the womb, you did not divide us evenly. He got kindness, and I got longing. He got complacence, and I got ambition. I want to kill him sometimes. I think sometimes he wants to die.”

- Nathaniel Orion, "Hevel"

[thismustbeso]

Everything Sad is Untrue, Daniel Nayeri / Cain Slaying Abel (~1640-1650), Gioacchino Assereto / The Sacrifice of Isaac (1616), Pedro Orrente / Crucified Christ (1896), Viktor Vasnetsov

[weltenwellen]

Hala Alyan, Salt Houses

[b0nkcreat]

hrmm. well hold on now ive been filled with a sudden joy and whimsy for the world

[b0nkcreat]

i think we're all going to be okay maybe

[typewriter-worries]

I'll Eat You Up, I Love You So

A Primer For the Small Weird Loves, Richard Siken | The Embrace II, Ron Hicks | Henry and June: From “A Journal of Love,” The Unexpurgated Diary (1931-1932) of Anaïs Nin, Henry Miller (@theoptia) | the night belongs to lovers, Ilaria Ratti | Dark. Sweet.: New & Selected Poems, Linda Hogan (@feral-ballad) | Intimacy, Angelica Alzona | Shame is an Ocean I Swim Across, Mary Lambert (@synbeam) | The Kiss, Edvard Munch | Summer Morn in New Hampshire, Claude McKay

[typewriter-worries]

Joe Newman in an interview with Interview Magazine

[mostbe1oved]

what is life if not spending every day trying really hard not to kill yourself and having god come back with do it pussy. do it if you're bad