we know how it goes
there are two men & one

is loved one is loved
less this begets

bloodshed & the idea
of forgiveness while

one man begets children
the other man is dead

*

in this version they
are lovers abel

giving all of himself
in the form

of kissed wrists & scrambled
eggs blowjobs

& morning tea
cain also gives

but he does it more freely
throwing bits of himself

to the wind like marigold
seeds each night

he kills abel a little
& abel feels it happen

when cain comes home
in the morning

smelling of honeysuckle
& cum abel

kisses his forehead thinks
there will never be

any
children will there

*

in this one they are in love
with the same man

& that man is in love
with a woman cain

works in a flowershop
gives him free flowers

abel is the woman’s brother
& gives him

nothing when
the flowershop’s owner

looks at the books finds
a deficit of orchids

cain is fired
never sees the man

again the man
marries the woman

& abel visits often
watches the man prowl the house

in his boxers
masturbates furiously in the shower

*

in this one cain kisses
& tells in this one

abel forgets
an anniversary in this one

they pick up a college kid
together & only one of them

gets the college kid’s
chlamydia in all of them

there is a kind of love
that pours from their mouths

in this one it sounds like music
in this one it tastes like blood

Patrick Kindig is currently a PhD candidate in Indiana University’s Department of English. He is the author of the chapbook all the catholic gods (forthcoming from Seven Kitchens Press) and the micro-chapbook Dry Spell (Porkbelly Press 2016), and his poems have recently appeared in The Journal, Meridian, Third Coast, Columbia Poetry Review, and other journals.

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