Figs on Blackrock

October 8, 2011

My Enemy

My enemy. I thank you for having hated me. Because of it I realize

I have good enough in me to be a threat to you.

I thank you for having committed yourself to war against me.

Your long rage has given

me the strength to let go of all that is impure within me.

My enemy, I thank you for having raped me.

Through it I have discovered that deep country in me

that cannot be overtaken except by love.

My enemy, I thank you for having burned down my house

and enslaved my children and killed my husband.

I have discovered this brief gift of life

and a blessing it is to forgive.

My enemy you have given me the power to heal you.

Written in October 2001

Based on hearing a fragment of a letter of an Armenian mother to a Turkish general during the persecution of Armenian minorities in Turkey in the first decade of the Twentieth Century.

Andrew More O’Connor

New York City

Rediscovered October 2011.