Jen Siraganian: The Sand of the Syrian Desert Apologizes to the Armenians after the Genocide

It was heat we embraced, not
your deportation, better known
as extermination. Still we held
no gentleness in our grit.

How many feet caressed us. 

We all parched for something here.

When a mother staggered, 

what could we do but shift 

grain from grain when she fell 

into golden indentation?

What did we know of people 

dispersing into air?

Each year, we sink and sink, 

but look at our gifts — 

millions of your femurs and clavicles 

rising hot to the surface.

Published in Portland Review, FALL 2024 issue

Jen Siraganian is an Armenian-American writer and former Poet Laureate of Los Gatos, California. Author of “Fracture,” she was co-winner of the New Ohio Review Poetry Prize, was nominated for a Pushcart Prize, and is a Lucas Artist Fellow. Her poetry has appeared in AGNI, Barrow Street, Best New Poets, Cortland Review, and Prairie Schooner. Website: jensiraganian.com