What appears
to be an ordinary bucket
is a sacred vessel
blessed by hands
burned on desert death marches
carried during the Armenian Genocide.
  [Read more…]

Women
kiss icons in the church of Saint Lazarus
place devote hands
over a reliquary
containing the saint’s bones

Beneath the altar –
a crypt with an empty sarcophagus

My eyes christen the marble with tears
for a distant country
in need of resuscitation   [Read more…]

In the old world
a familiar story

The king constructs a labyrinth
because Minotaurs
must be fed

It requires a beast
to kick eyes into dust
and steal a crown   [Read more…]

Sun kneads into earth
fires up the clay oven
bakes tomorrow’s bread
  [Read more…]

A respite
between waves
reflecting
the mandala of sun

Touch Apollo’s altar
and throw yourself
into light
before resolution
breaks
the sea’s mirror
  [Read more…]

Next holiday season
bells will be ringing:

Tongues hammering
sunken cheeks

Hands
stripped to bones
peeling for handouts from thieves   [Read more…]

People stare at me

Six feet of blue eyes
looking out over a sea of black hair

People stare
at minority me   [Read more…]

Dancers stepped on their own feet
bankers robbed
consumers shopped
sellers sold out
rappers wrapped themselves in gold chains
politicians shit bricks   [Read more…]