you shall love your crooked neighbor

growing up, i barely knew the bible, but read
and reread the part when cain drifted east
or was drawn that way, into a place of desolation,
the land of nod, there to begin, with a wife

of unknown origin, another race of men,
under the mark of god. as a boy, i thought nod
would be a place where the blue scillas
would bloom gray, a country of the rack and screw,

the serrated sword, where the very serving cups
were bone. as a grown man, i’ve heard that nod
never was a nation—of cain’s offspring, or anyone—
but a mistranslation of “wander,” so cain

could go wherever, and be in nod. far more
than in god, i believe in cain, who destroyed
his own brother, and therefore in any city
could have his wish, and be alone.