Esther Heboyan: If

If

To prolong the receding hour

I must

Sort out your fermented mood

I'd better be unbiddable

Yet how utterable

Your closeness

When somehow cognac and cigarettes

From across the kitchen table

Uncheck yester-years' panic

Toward a disappearance

You call a beginning

Next time

Be a pal

And bring me a thesaurus

Will you

This poem has previously appeared in The Armenian Weekly in 2008.