January 2021
Bio Note: I'm a retired English Professor spending my time writing, taking the
occasional photograph, trying to follow the Dharma. This year I have had two full-length poetry
collections published: Time is Not a River and Morning Calm (both available on Amazon
and Barnes & Noble.com).
Between Design and Desire
I am writing this simultaneously in English & another language which cannot be read by anyone now living. I have disguised these words and lines, or overlaid them; the dead language resting comfortably both under & on top of the living, intertwined like lovers from different centuries. As you are reading this, at least one other language has become extinct at a faster rate than birds, mammals, fish, or plants. What is gone between an abacus & an Aztec or even between toast & a toothbrush? How many words are there for snow or rain or love or skin? Covering a dictionary with my tongue I discover ten words between design & desire moments before they disappear.
Originally published in Mojave River 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