Arpine Konyalian Grenier: Kessab, Syria

In my memory
you are
not a prairie dream
revisited
not a distorted shoot
from early spring
not a purple-stoned sceptre
nor the remnants of a blind man's dog
but a veil I wear
when blood scratches
my brain searching
for cradle
the sound of wedding drums
approaching
the wait of moon brides
unravished bodies
willing sweet sable
to a stride.


From the volume St Gregory's Daughter, Copyright 1991 Arpine Konyalian Grenier