Blood does not protect,
neither good deeds.
Your kind thoughts
won't stop the cobra.

Identified by acts that harm,
subject to change
like time and the weather
yet eternal, as light and dark

"Love your enemies"
recognizes their existence;
otherwise, you would have
been told, "Have no enemies."

The way to have no enemy
is to obey your foe,
surrender to a hostile will
and lose your own.

When you abandon your life,
you spit on your ancestors,
forfeit your home and country,
wander lost in a foreign land.

This world always tests you
with crossroads and dead-ends.
When you face one way,
you turn your back on another.

Opposing forces rule life.
No resistance, no muscle.
The one peaceful place
on earth is the cemetery.   

No point lamenting the loss
of some snakeless paradise.
Good and bad bacteria
battle for life in every body.

Lilija Valis' poetry will be featured in her forthcoming book, "Freedom on the Fault Line".