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1. SURVIVOR

   We were
   an island of faith
   risen in a sea of ominous
   pagan tempests threatening
   to swamp the very sound
   of our prayers of hope
   in a furious gale of
   fear and dread…

   We had
   made the leap
   to Light and Peace
   with the Grace of the
   only born Son’s descent
   on the sacred land of Eden
   and His disclosure to the Saint
   sent to Ararat dyed crimson
   with the blessed blood of
   the maidens martyred
   by an incensed king
   gone stark mad…

   We had revered
   Anahit the mother
   of all wisdom adored
   Mary the Mother of God
   we made the cruel journey
   bearing the heavy cross
   of double martyrdom
   at Avarayr and then
   at Deir-ez-Zor…

   * * *

   In the splendor
   of spring, the sun rose
   on the darkest day of our
   lives, shining on bare blood-
   soaked bayonets of men
   prodding old men and
   women and babes
   onto a long trek
   to demise…

   At sunrise
   We left behind
   ancestral homes
   a native soil we had
   tilled for many millennia
   orchards schools churches
   and burial grounds… forced to
   drag our worn out famished
   and broken bodies to a
   distant endless alien
   graveyard in the
   lifeless sands
   of the alien
   desert…

   Parched inert
   where nothing grew
   and all things withered
   and died… by the time the
   end came bones outnumbered
   the stars and the crescent
   moon appeared in dark
   blood-red skies…

   Then the moans
   of anguish morphed
   into clarions’ call to a final
   battle for faith and Homeland
   and valiant sons and daughters
   of Urartu Nayiree and Ararat
   Van Moush and Bitlis rose
   as one and raised the
   rainbow colors of
   the Covenant…

   And I survived.

   —————- Tatul Sonentz
   April, 2009

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