The poem depicts the Arab as intimate guest-enemy whose inner life stays opaque

Evidence

The enemy who drinks tea in our shack Has a horse in smoke, and a daughter with Thick eyebrows and brown eyes. And her long hair Is as long as the night of songs over her shoulders. And her picture Never leaves him when he comes to drink our tea. But he Does not tell us what she does in the evening, nor does he tell of a horse abandoned by the songs on the hilltop … — Gil Anidjar, The Jew, the Arab, 18

Categorization

• DEFINE: This opening poem establishes the ‘enemy’ of Anidjar’s title as an intimate, domestic familiar figure — the brother/guest who drinks tea — which the book’s thesis reworks.