Friday, July 11, 2014

Michael Minassian: EYES ON FIRE


With what burning eyes
do I see the past

the black ash
that eats the edges
of the photographs,

the white ash
that covers my eyelids?

With what burning throat
do I recite the names
no one alive remembers,

names I have reduced to titles,
events, and relationships:

great-grandmother,
brother who drowned in Lake Van,
grandfather’s first wife and son?

with what burning ears
do I hear the wind
traveling from the past;

the sound reaching my brain
with a series of sharp
cracks and scratches,

like old 78 rpm recordings;
the labels written in English
and Armenian –

one language bleeding
into the other,
as the record begins to spin

and I hear the music:

                        duduk, oud, my own voice?


Michael Minassian lives in South Florida. His poems have appeared recently in such journals as Aurorean, Iodine Poetry Journal, Poet Lore, Main Street Rag, and The Meadow. He is also the writer/producer of the podcast series  Eye On Literature available on iTunes. A chapbook of his poems entitled The Arboriculturist was published in 2010 by Amsterdam Press.

No comments: