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.