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April 2021
Michael Minassian
mikialminassian@gmail.com / www.michaelminassian.com
Bio Note: I'm a retired English Professor spending my time writing, taking the occasional photograph, trying to follow the Dharma. My poetry collections Time is Not a River and Morning Calm are both available on Amazon. My manuscript A Matter of Timing won the 2020 Poetry Society of Texas’ Catherine Case Lubbe Manuscript Contest (publication: Summer 2021).

Author's Note: My grandfather, Avedis Kalajian was a survivor of the Armenian Genocide. During WW I, he joined the French Army and fought against Turkish forces in the Middle East before immigrating to the United States. During WWII, he registered as part of the “old man’s draft” but was never called for service.

Avedis Avedis Stood at the Rail

Avedis stood at the rail
staring into the water
on the crossing
from Southern France
into Manhattan;
black waves with red foam
following the ship across
the Atlantic, the dead
from the Great War
filling his throat
like the bodies of fish
too small to travel alone 
riding inside whales 
and dolphins.
 
Avedis meant “brings
good news” in Armenian;
on Ellis Island, they called
him James, then Jimmy,
erasing the news he brought 
as well as his past; 
On land, in the new country
he practiced saying his name:
like tiny bones
the sound splintered
on his tongue.
Originally published in Marathon Literary Review, 2018
©2021 Michael Minassian
Editor's Note: If this poem(s) moves you please consider writing to the author (email address above) to tell her or him. You might say what it is about the poem that moves you. Writing to the author is what builds the community at Verse Virtual. It is very important. -JL
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