Ara Babaian: The Other Face

Today I am thinking of
            The tender arms of history.
Not the bloody pogroms or the conquerors.
Today I am thinking of
            A village woman
            Baking bread,
            Bread so soft that I
            Want to rest my head
            Against its flesh
            And let its heat
            Warm me.

Copyright Ara Babaian. This poem has appeared in Birthmark: A bilingual anthology of Armenian-American poetry, 1999.