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ArmenianPoetryProjectAuthor: Lola Koundakjian
Armenian Poetry, for poetry and Armenian language lovers. armenian-poetry.blogspot.com This project is curated and produced by Lola Koundakjian in New York. To contact APP, send an email to: ArmenianPoetryProject[at]gmail[dot]com. Language: hy Genres: Education, Language Learning Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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Lory Bedikian: A night in Lebanon
Sunday, 13 April, 2025
The youngest boy, with his ulcer,sleeps. His lower lip pulsates, a small fishbreathing. A bed of torn pillows, cradles fourof them, two brothers, two sisters—curved, quiet on the living room floor.Buzzing, the open window has its mouth fullof street lights, mosquitoes, those who stayawake. Peeled paint on the ceiling, the doorsheds the skin it wore througha drawn-out, twenty-year civil war.The parents sleep in a room full of faithhammered to the walls. Posing, a coppercross, its inscription in Armenian asksfor blessings of God upon this home.Through the mother’s sleeping lips a prayerslips, rises, drifts and hovers above the boywho dreams: he’s a grown manspinning yarn around their homeuntil it’s as thick as a bombshell.Then, cane in hand, walking through a cedargrove, he drops a string of worrybeads into a well. Cracking a pumpkinseed open with his teeth, he tasteschildhood in each closed casing.In the morning, a thin scrollof bread filled with tomato paste, oil, mintwill start the hurried day. But now, he sleepsas he did the day he was born. Stillnessenters his lip, his mouth finally rests,breathing as he will when his is olderthan this war whose finger has carved a scarin him, the size of an eye that will not close."Night in Lebanon" appeared in the Crab Orchard Review and was reprinted in Blue Arc West: An Anthology of California Poets. https://armenian-poetry.blogspot.com/2008/05/lory-bedikian-night-in-lebanon.html
