Wednesday, January 24, 2018

Rupert Loydell paints

April Diptych 18

1 comment:

  1. A DIPTYCH

    I Cain

    The Cain question has not been settled yet,
    Some say that he did not kill his brother
    and now, a marked man for the rest of eternity,
    wanders in the melancholy lands of the Continents
    that the door might shut on the step and the heart on the visit.
    Others contend that he didn't kill his brother
    but wanders, a marked man from generation to generation
    in the twilight of unexplored continents
    that the superstitious might heed the messages of dreams
    that the faithful God, fear, and the knife.
    Yet others say that seed of both beliefs
    sprouts in Fate's own courtyard,
    opening out to monstrous sunflower night
    that drips a yellow bitter moon
    on the landscapes of the Continents, where Cain does evil
    because he has Abel for a brother.
    This school of thought has many followers,
    amongst whom the undecided poet.

    II Abel

    But I who know the truth say nothing.
    Not that Hades will have numbed me
    in the pallid asphodel fields: those whom God protects
    are left untouched by such degeneration,
    gathering measure of rust and silence, inheritance tax
    on the bridges of memory. My brother Cain
    lives in the tumult of the waters and reigns in the assembly
    of the winds. Impeccable each morning
    he hurries past my garden's rare wonders
    and beyond the foliage, the after-rain birds,
    the droplet fringes iridescing in the brilliance of colour
    he passes again at five in the afternoon
    beside the loveliest girl in the neighborhood. And lo,
    I with my lamp-oil folding the night back
    into the headquarters of thunder, and in the thickets
    of my knowledge, soft-footed leopard he, proud
    in the glory of his youth, lit up by the lovely woman.
    No, Cain would never stoop to stealing crumbs
    out of the sparrow's mouth. You don't
    take a knife to your brother for nothing.

    -- Dmitris Tsaloumas

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