Blurbs

The guy who shot him in the head said,
“We will silence you in a way that you
will never speak again.” And he was right,
otherwise Hrant might have continued to say,
“Of course I say it was genocide.”
The Turkish Prime Minister said,
“Bullets have been fired at free thought
and our democratic life.”
He has to say that. What else can he say?
Certainly not something against his own country’s

“Turkishness.”

But thank God the U.S. State Department
stepped in and said, “We certainly are
concerned any time someone who has
been very outspoken in their views is
made to pay a price simply for their
ability to speak their mind.” Thanks, Tom,
we really appreciate that. I’ve never heard
“Keep us out of it, please” put more delicately
and with such tact. We’d ask you to speak
at the eulogy, but I’m sure you’re busy.
And you, my fellow Armenian… what do you say?
Are there words left in you to speak?
Then why don’t you say something?
Don’t worry; I’m just as much a hypocrite
as you are. I didn’t know who he was until
after the gun went off – until he was dead.
You can quote me on that.

My Canticle for Leibowitz

within
from within
from inside
inside my mind
through my arm
through my hand
through this pen
glide over paper
tell from
within
from within
from inside
inside my mind
stand by the edge
of these precipitous thoughts
and put them down
forever
so that they will know you
you were not afraid
you wrote it down
and one day
when all the moisture
evaporates from my body
may my bones remain
as dry as the ink that
has stained this page
with words that will
have outlived my life.