Raffi Wartanian: How To Orchestrate A Genocide

Tweak laws
Stratify identity
Threaten activists
Silence dissent
Round up the poets
Punish opposition
Blame the victims
Appropriate their oppression
Sing of your righteousness

Say it with the right accent
So that it sounds acceptable

Do it in a suit and tie
So that it looks professional

Kill them in the dead of night
So that it seems accidental

Give the weeping mother a care package
To appear sentimental

Tell us it was a mistake
To fan the flames of an inferno

Hate with such ferocity
That it could feel like love



Copyright © 2025 by Raffi Joe Wartanian. Published in Altadena Poetry Review. Reprinted by permission of the poet.