April 2018
After teaching at a college in South Florida for thirty years, I retired, and my wife and I moved halfway across the country. Some of my poems have appeared recently in such journals as The Comstock Review, Main Street Rag, San Pedro Review, and South Florida Poetry Journal. Check out my author's page on Facebook or go to my blog at http://www.michaelminassian.com
JACK PAYS A VISIT
Sitting in a coffee shop I notice
out of the corner of my eye
my uncle's reflection in the window.
He raises his thick gray eyebrows
and mouths the word so-
that's when I remember
he's been dead for 20 years.
I close my eyes
hoping he will go away,
but when I look again
he is sitting across the table
and tells me he’s haunted
by the ghosts of Persian poets
and forgotten deities.
In ancient times, even after death,
poets and heralds wandered
from town to town
reciting the deeds of heroes
and the cruelties of the gods.
Don't write about the dead, I hear
him say just before he disappears,
his advice too late:
he has been haunting
my poems for years.
My uncle always said he preferred
symbols instead of words
the tiger's orange gaze
the tongues of stars
the hunger of the rain.
© 2018 Michael Minassian
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