Christopher Atamian: Into the Woods
for N.S.
I
Into the woods I go
Ever faster ever slow
As green gives way to red
I walk along the riverbed
Some trees become fairies
Others soar in lofty aeries
Great armies doing battle
Young lovers kissing, prattle
A history of my world
Told daily, how it unfurl’d
In the morning and late at night
Like a martyr I go into the light.
II
Into the woods I go
Contrite that I do not know
How to save my people
How to pray in a steeple
From Cilicia and Mt. Lebanon
They came
Refugees all the same.
On Riverside Drive I think of them
As a young Orthodox maiden rips her hem.
III
Into the woods I go
Full of hope, full of dope.
I will not fast I will not slow
Just as I want I go.
I do not know many things
As I pull lightly on my silver rings-
Vincennes is what?--3000 miles away
And yet and yet
I think of Sarafian
Night and day.
Into the woods I go
And now blissful it begins to snow.
-Christopher Atamian
