The Sacrifice of Abel, 1576, engraving by Gerard de Jode after Michiel Coxie, with contributions from Jan Sadeler. Sheet: 8 1/8 × 11 3/16 in. (20.7 × 28.4 cm). Image courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. The caption reads: “The just God looked upon Abel’s gifts as acceptable, but the sacrifices and prayers of the farmer were to him as nothing. Genesis 4.”
John Steinbeck carved a wooden box
"EAST OF EDEN תּמשׁל" read the lid.
"Inside are thoughts of good and evil hid,"
The author showed his editor.
Advisor to the military,
Cyrus hid taxpayer funds
To build a future for his sons;
Two boys inherited his farm.
Adam soldiered, Charles toiled.
The elder bought the younger's stake.
Adam wed his worst mistake,
And left for fertile California.
Adam's wife grew round with child
Though she had never touched his penis.
They moved together to Salinas,
Where she shot her hated husband.
For years the son of Cyrus Trask
Tilled not, nor sowed; his land lay fallow
Depression wrought by countenance sallow:
Adam's dear absconded bride.
"Timshel" explained his Chinese aide,
"Thou mayest yet rule over sin."
If it had not been for him,
Adam's twins would yet want names.
Adam's wife kept photographs
Of men oppressed by masochism,
Her kingdom built on botulism,
But never asked for his divorce.
Mother-free, the boys grew tall.
On learning her identity,
They crept onto her property
And for the first time, Cathy blushed.
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Levin, Daniel. "FIG. 1 Replica of the East of Eden Manuscript Box displayed at the National Steinbeck Center/ From the National Steinbeck Center Exhibits." In "John Steinbeck and the Missing Kamatz in East of Eden: How Steinbeck Found a Hebrew Word but Muddled Some Vowels," The Steinbeck Review 12, no. 2 (2015): 191.
