Fleeing east before the great Jehovah’s
Wrath, fratricide Cain left Eden’s borders
Sullenly, exiled as the first to fling
A question back into the angry talking sky:
“Leash-master am I, then, to that brother?”

A question left unanswered still by Justice,
Who carved instead a warning sign onto
The quivering flesh of the challenger:
Touch me not, for I am cursed of God and
Fugitive, vagrant and lost amid alien thorns.

Equivocal gift, like all else from this most true
Impartiality: I who slew must not be slain,
Though I and mine will never rest again.

You and I, you and I, my father Cain.