Progress
BY Frank Diamond
Cain bushed out the Serengeti.
Neanderthal and lonely, after feasting
for days on his latest kill. Blood and
bone and plenty. Is faith, fear? Fear, faith?
Does it ever really matter?
Squinting across a sea of green
and nearly thinking, “Something’s missing.”
Waiting for the question coming
as he rubs his belly and listens
to a hunter claw a tooth still insisting.
The Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Life
root stonily in the garden. There’s no kill
like the first kill. No will like free will.
No still like the still of waiting
for judgment’s nod surely coming.
Frank Diamond’s poem, “Labor Day,” has recently been nominated for a
Pushcart Prize Award. His short stories have appeared in Innisfree, Kola: A
Black Literary Magazine, Dialogual, the Madras Mag, Reverential Magazine,
Empty Sink Publishing, and the Zodiac Review. He has had poetry published
in Philadelphia Stories, Fox Chase Review, Deltona Howl, Artifact Nouveau,
Black Bottom Review, and Feile-Festa. He lives in Langhorne, PA.