David Roman: The Turk and the Armenian

Two kids, hair blonde, eyes grey,
Mere children of a farmer playing in the hay.
Not an ounce of evil in their heart,
Nor deceit or hate,
But that could not protect them from their morbid fate.

Alas came the horde of darkness from the east,
Philistine, barbaric, revolting beasts.
Envious of the local aesthetic taste,
They plundered, looted, raped, and killed,
And when they decided that enough blood had spilled,
They took one of the infants
And continued their path of senseless war in haste.

The remaining child arose from the ashes
An orphan, rendered homeless, not knowing why
His people had to die…
And grow up he did, amongst the survivors,
Since day one remembering the evils of his rivals,
And dedicated his life to eternal hate.

The other child grew up with the nomads,
With their customs, their women, their religion, their race,
And slowly and gradually began to change his face,
The memories of his childhood have forever left his head,
And at the age of twenty one he rode back to the country side
And struck his brother dead.

David Roman

The author is an English major at UNF. He moved to the states from Baku in 1992 following the anti-Armenian pogroms. He has written poetry, short stories, and an entire science fiction novel.