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  

a hamasyan state of mind

kaleidoscopic
continuous blossoming 
fold upon fold 
upon unfoldings
cacophonous harmonies
of a  mobius rainbow
understandably
just out of reach
head bobbing from
gyumri to our souls

scraps of rosemary and sage

is anyone going
anywhere near her
where she lives now
in scarborough, yeah,
with the parsley 
the fair and all

should i send
my greetings
some herbs
have you kiss
the eyes of the
one who lives
there

we were something
once upon a time
(mighta said thyme)
then it just ended
maybe she said 
something i said
makes no nevermind
since it's always
gotta be on me

once we were
really something
then it grounded and
thudded to a dull end
we didn't think twice
and it's alright...'

forget about this notion
taking my greetings
with you, to give her
i'll just text her this

march 7, 2026
you know what to listen to
when you read this...