I hope you’ll listen carefully
As I lay out the hard truth about my enemy.

He is charming and kind
Attractive and affable
Good-humored and clever
Generous and frugal
Intelligent and wise
Creative and resourceful
Helpful and proactive
Responsible and conscientious
Diligent and successful in his career
A loving and devoted husband and father
A man about whom there are many things to love.

He sinned against me egregiously in several ways once
Then shut me down and wouldn’t talk about it
Then he lied to my face in front of witnesses.

So we parted ways
And he has not admitted the truth since.
And he smiles when he sees me
As if I had been the one in the wrong
And he had since forgiven me for it.

And there’s one more thing
That everybody should know about my enemy—
This bright man
Who is so dull and darkened
About these particular sins of his
Which have somehow coaxed him
To depart from his otherwise-good character:

I count him in my heart
As a wandering friend
Who might someday
Come home.

I will not sit in the darkness
As the sullen world often does
Denying the truth of his virtues.

Nor will I sit in the darkness
As he does himself
Denying his unrepented sins—
As if I could be a faithful friend
Conspiring in a thing like that.