Michael Minassian: THE ARMENIAN VILLAGE - 1915

The soldiers stand

in clumps

smoking cigarettes

and kicking

the dirt

with their boots.

Half the village is empty

although the well

is stuffed

and overflows;

across the center square,

the church spire leaks

thick black smoke

spewing ash that falls

like winter’s leaves.

A century later,

rain weeps through

the deserted streets

and washes the salt

from the tears

of the dead

stirring under the earth.

·      originally published in Third Wednesday magazine, 2016.