western armenia

12/5/21

hayastan 

i hold a little boy in my name 
armen 
the one who wasn’t supposed to live 

my grandfather said he struggled with 
nightmares 
and now we all do 

i wonder if when he was on the death march 
did he look up and see 

they say stars are seen later 
something that is long gone 
i see him

we are not afraid of night 
stars are jewels you can follow back home 
they took the land, and the home 
but we have each other 

a nation of a hundred balls of gas 
and molten, bursting, firing at one another 
all while we hold hands

we are a constellation wrapped 
all around the earth 
we will be each other’s 
anchor