Colleen Abel
By faith Abel offered to God
a more excellent sacrifice than Cain …
and by it, having died, he yet speaks.
—Hebrews 11:4
The raven taught
your mother
and your father
to bury you, first buried.
First martyr.
First shepherd, first
blood crying out
from its place
in the earth.
What is this
to me now, this
badge I wear?
Harbinger. Grief-
bringer. First
bitter taste
in the mouth of God.