Revenge, and Still Love Goes On

Credit for this poem and the story of it posted below. Revenge... At times...I wish I could meet in a duel the man who killed my father and razed our home, expelling me into a narrow country. And if he killed me, I'd rest at last, and if I were ready- I would take my revenge! * But if it came to light, when my rival appeared, that he had a Mother waiting for him, or a Father who'd put his right hand over his hearts place in his chest whenever his son was late by just a quarter hour for a meeting they'd set- then I would not kill him, even if I could. * Likewise...I would not murder him if it were soon made clear that he had a brother or sisters who loved him and constantly longed to see him. Or if he had a wife to greet him and children who couldn't bear his absence and whom his gifts would thrill. Or if he had friends or companions, neighbors he knew or allies from prison or a hospital room, or classmates from his school... asking about him and sending him warm regards. * But if he turned out to be on his own--cut off like a branch from a tree--without a Mother or a Father, with neither a brother or a sister, wifeless without a child, and without kin or neighbors or friends, colleagues, then I'd add not a thing to his pain within that aloneness--- Not the torment of death, and not the sorrow of passing away. Instead I'd be content to ignore him when I passed him by on the street--As I convinced myself that paying him no attention in itself was a kind of revenge. Taha Muhammed Ali *** Taha Muhammed Ali is a Palistinian from Nazareth, born in 1931 in a village that was bombed in 1948 then bulldozed to make way for an Israeli settlement. He never attended school past the 4th grade but read all the classic poetry he could find. "In my poetry there is no Palestine, no Israel. But in my poetry-- suffering, sadness, longing, fear, and these together make the results: Palestine and Israel. The art is to take something real, then to build it anew with your imagination". Originally published in Shambala Sun May 2010 What a wonderful story...it does give me hope for this planet Earth And so it goes Such love I should have for all of you, brinda Namaste नमस्ते