Understanding Selflessness

“A Kurdish woman, Sevinaz Evdike, dedicates herself to helping these women even though their husbands may have killed her countrymen.“ - James Jackson, in The Times of London, on the subject of ISIS war brides

I can’t begin to comprehend
the vast reserves of goodness
in your bones. For they must be ingrained
that deep. To know
a giving up of hate as totally
as yours, as utterly holy
as all the golden cups and coins
that fill the stores of popes and sheikhs
and other men who wear God’s hand-me-downs,
is something I cannot approach.
For hate and vengeance course within
my thoughts from day to day.
And knowing of your sacrifice to love,
to better worlds of hope and compassion,
is as close as I may come
to understanding selflessness.