Shahé Mankerian: How to Erase an Armenian Accent in Junior High

1. No one cares if you buried orphans your age
in the ghettos of Beirut. Act like a pressed
flower or practice selective mutism.

2. Like canker sores, place pushpins or paperclips
under the tongue to force stillness. Swallow
the nonsense about the blind sniper.

3. If teachers warn you to stop chewing
on graphite, eraser heads, pencil shavings,
pretend you’re sucking on mastic lozenges.

4. Search for moldy lavash or slices of forgotten
cardamom cake in your backpack. Chewing
crumbs will keep you from damning God.

5. In the library, the Egyptian girl hiding behind
a discolored globe will never fix your accent.
Find the courage to mouth marhaba quietly.

6. During round robin, when asked to read
Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury out loud,
drop your eyes and mumble, “I lost my place.”

7. Join the choir: a homeland, erased,
caught like chalk dust in your throat
goes unnoticed during a requiem.

This poem appeared in Markaz in February 2026