By : Karine Mkrdichyan

what they never tell you

is when you leave

when you flee

you will

never

get back

this thing more

gripping than genocide

colonialism occupation war

you will lose you

when you take someone’s identity // you take the air out their lungs

diaspora seduction

mythic you are

unattainable

always slipping

out my grasp

you cant reassemble what was

we are shattered cross this dirt

a dream cant be strangled

or realized

these cut deeper

than

any government

bullet.

Karine Mkrdichyan is a writer and poet based in Los Angeles.