To Be Armenian

Bedros Afeyan

An Assortment from Bedros Afeyan's Paitings

Dr. Bedros Afeyan is the elder brother of Noubar. They are two of the three siblings. He also attended the Armenian Evangelical College for the first 13 years of his scholastic life but did not graduate because the family moved to Canada a year or two before his high school graduation.

Those interested in Bedros Afeyan's academic and professional achievements may read the attached link where it is noted that he received his "B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Concordia University, Montreal, Canada in 1980. He then received a master's degree and a Ph.D. in Theoretical Plasma Physics from the University of Rochester". The biography further notes that Bedros Afeyan is also "a poet and painter in his spare time, as well as a chess player and a musical improvisor. ( https://www.lle.rochester.edu/index.php/2019/06/03/bedros-afeyan/ )

Dr. Bedros Afeyan (bedros@mac.com) is also the editor of The Literary Groong, where he posts regularly. Recently he posted on his FB page the attached poem noting that it is a rumination from a decade ago but that it rings true today as well. He noted that the poem was posted in the Literary Group and is dated June 12, 2012. I took the liberty of reproducing it on my blog.

 

To Be

To be Armenian

Ah, to be Armenian

Promises, past glory

Lamentations, future fury

 

To be Armenian

Timeless and free

Singing mocking songs

Of birds and fruit tree

Singing lullabies to

Dead children

Sleeping namelessly

Wear your little crosses

Foreheads bleeding

Begging for water

A page sans footnotes

A cage of accusations

Mighty Muslim mendacity

Treasured clinging obsession

To mount one Ararat

To count two peaks as

One nation unRussified

UnTurkified, undissolved

Into Iranian touristry

 

To be Armenian, dark, pileous

Pampered, mommy Virgin

Dad kebab savvy, oghi, tavli

Weary, witty, dead early, dead often

Never born where you are born

Always hero, always torn

 

To be Armenian in so many tongues

Is artistry, talent outsized

Intimidating skeletal envy hordes

Moon slivered, uncultured

Toads of groaning swords

Mounting horse hooves marking

Tracked sliced, hung, cut, claimed

Creamed, burned cities in sunless agony

A musical chord shoved into a throat open

To destiny exposed, overbite to oblivion

Remedy diasporan, dangling loyalty

Suspicion, melancholy, never free to be free

 

To be Armenian is an apricot dream

A pomegranates scheme, an eggplant dome

A stuffed zuccini melodrama with tomato, rice

Meat and herbal trauma, for grape leaves to resolve

For violins to absolve the motherless child

On rescue ships and island barges exiled

Banned, brave, declared a prodigy

An Armenian in another Armenian's eyes

Sees flowers, steeples, sheep grazing

Grapes ripening in peace

On another Armenian's lips luscious promise

Crane songs, hinted, brushed love songs

Patriotic bed downs

Making love, no words

Tears or moans unheard

Church and book

Reason as recourse

Trade monetary acrobatics,

As spirits past guide gamble

For an Armenian one day

Not in Argentina or Athens

New York or New Zealand

But basking in the shadow

Of Ararat writ large fonts Mesrobian

Borrowed from heaven, served, sentenced

Due date uncertain, future fury, a given.

 

Bedros Afeyan

Los Angeles, CA

6-12-12

An assortment from Bedros Afeyan's Paintings.