A Parting of Ways

So Abram said to Lot, “Let’s not have any quarreling between you and me.” Genesis 13:8

We are brothers. May we never fight.
Should you wish to occupy the valley
to the left, I’ll turn unto the right
and dwell upon the Negev’s height.

So Lot surveyed the Jordan’s fertile plain
and saw that it was watered like a garden;
Gomorrah gleamed against the fields of grain
and pastureland. “Though I remain

your brother, an equal heir by rights,
I will not, Abram, cast my lot with you
and forfeit all the more urbane delights 
afforded by the Sodomites.”

—Timothy Whitworth Smith

Photo by Philip Medhurst via Creative Commons. Image cropped.