april 24

dichotomies highlight
complexities existing
in a heart, soul, and mind
warped by news and
fake news... propaganda

chanting never again
to no! not again!
we gotta do something
say those who can't
do very much

grandchild of a genocide
pulled by what we see
by what we see and
can do nothing about
empty us from our lands
when we're gone
dismantle churches and
whatever might have
shown we were there
    but we still
    got photos...|
    holy mother of god

empty others from their lands
do it better, more efficiently
blow up their buildings
blow up their homes with 
them still in them
they have to leave
there is nothing|
no reason to stay
people gone and evidence rubled
    in one massive
    war crime

war by remote control
the ultimate, efficient,
obscene, and vile,
violent abstraction 

a sketch of an etude

overwhelmed by
that unbearable
lightness of being

not trying to
rip off kundera
but he said it so
amazingly well

but the concept
oh yes, the concept
so very real
these days
probably real
all the days
of mankind

buoyed and 
anchored
simultaneously
by the precious
pursuit of, you know,
trying to fathom
life and love and 
death and disease
kindness and inhumanity
none of which 
ever
    go
        away

none of which
will we
    ever
        understand 

april 14, 2026 

 

 

 

unholy warfare

speechless
empty
gut punched
broken heart 
crushed spirit  

a village rubbled
a father digging
weeping and digging
in his ruined home
for his children
he already knows
are dead

april 9, 2026

 

afar

i
in love with the idea
of loving you
adoring the notion
of adoring you
yearning just to
yearn for you 
even dreamt about
dreaming about you
while missing the longing
of missing you

ii
thinking these thoughts
while conjuring and 
scratching out these lines
from afar

from afar
some distant corner
of my fallow mind

from afar
but rooted in some
genetically coded 
sameness
from afar
probably
too far
 

different boots, different throats

Israel Passes Law to Hang Palestinians Convicted of Deadly Attacks
Experts say the law was written in such a way as to ensure that it was 
unlikely to ever apply to Jewish extremists who commit similar crimes.
~ New York Times, March 30, 2026

the powerless 
have the power
the subjugated
now subjugating
the once pacific
armed to the teeth
those disenfranchised
now disenfranchising

once viewed as vile
less than human 
viewing others
just as vile and heathen
casting them as animals
those that were gassed
about to hang 'em high

a village for a tooth
cities for an eye
a hospital for a house

the powerless 
with the power
have become
what they
hated

existential etude

finding my voice
using it well to mine
a wave of poems
loded in the bedrock
below the basement
of my soul

the voice 
getting hoarse
i feel it waning
the vein is baning out
the well, just sludge
the river, wadifying
the metaphors
coming up lame

bereft and wandering
in a world gone mad
lonely in a loving fold
joy coming only
from the stars
in the desert
night sky of
my mind's eye

 

a curcina etude

one two three, four five
    expressing, something
    curcina, for you

meg yergu yer-ek çors
    the way my, heart works
    oddly beats, when you
    just enter, a room
dum tek tek, dum tek

bir iki, üç dört
    wanting to, jump up
    and surç bar, with you
    wanting to, watch your
    naz nousing, sweet dance 
hoppa pa, hopa

march 17, 2026
for this one, you might need 
hagop martayan dilâçer's alphabet