What would you burn?

words 

disintegrating into

“civilian settlements targeted by
unmanned aerial vehicles resulting in
widespread destruction to infrastructure”

into

“civilian targeted
unmanned vehicles
widespread infrastructure”

into

“civilian unmanned widespread”
we are unmanned
words like “international community” 

disintegrating into

we are unmanned
we are widespread 

diaspora is here and there
unwanted here and
longing for there but
absent here and there and
threatened here and there

disintegrating into

we are widespread
block letters of legal frameworks
pasted on skies above
stuffed into mouths below
open circles chiseled into rectangular pages
handpick letters while rolling in dirt
letters like
“We Are Our Mountains”
We Are unmanned widespread here and there
We Are civilians diaspora mouths rolling in dirt

do you know the dirt
do you know the bones
of ancestors the footsteps
of soldiers the remnants
of vegetables the rubble
of monasteries the dirt

disintegrating into

“territorial disputes”

do you know us

“We Are Our Mountains”
We Are dirt disintegrating into sky
We Are dreams of triangles smothered by rectangles conceived as circles

disintegrating

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Lillian Avedian

Lillian Avedian is the assistant editor of the Armenian Weekly. She reports on international women's rights, South Caucasus politics, and diasporic identity. Her writing has also been published in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Democracy in Exile, and Girls on Key Press. She holds master's degrees in journalism and Near Eastern studies from New York University.

@LillianAvedian

Latest posts by Lillian Avedian (see all)

• Book Review | Reparations of the Heart: Toward a SWANA Futurity - April 10, 2024
• The Region in Brief - April 10, 2024
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