God said love your enemy, so I obeyed him and loved myself .

To the depths of my soul I go to wrap the monster in a coat of sunlight and welcome him home. Kneeling where he's been waiting, I whisper, thank you for the rage that shielded my sorrow, for the cold that kept me whole when grief would have me hollow. Your darkness was the soil that held me until I was strong enough to reach for the sun.

Rage became the backbone of my tenderness, standing guard at the door to everyone I love. Cold turned into a well of composure, the quiet at the center of the storm. Darkness is now a wide room of shade where the burning grief of others can come to rest.

You held the line. I return dressed in the light I became. I wrap my arms around the monster and press my face to his until the beast and the man are one. The man embracing the monster is the birth of the king.