Helene Pilibosian from "With the Bait of Bread"

Click the link to hear With the Bait of Bread read by Lola Koundakjian.

Child, you were and
you learned to be.
For a while, Armenian was
a wish you could not fathom.
It is still a sea
and we fish in it for food
with the bait of forgotten bread.
The moon will be less specific
with the sun and the tides
if you wish it, Child.

You are yeast scattered upon
the ground and the rising dough
will grow into tomorrow.
You are the yeast of
your friends in one language
or another.
If not already, Armenian will
ring in one of your ears someday.


Copyright Helene Pilibosian

This poem was also published in Ararat Quarterly and in the Anthology of Magazine Verse & Yearbook of American Poetry, 1981. Reprinted here by kind permission of the author.