“Shad tezh-var eh,” her voice betrays how hard it is to carry the now.
She speaks in village Armenian,
the cobbled tongue of those expelled to foreign lands.
Her words hang, weighty, like ripe pomegranates,
bittersweet with memories of home.

28 October 2024 | Nadine Araksi/Նատին Արաքսի

“Teach it to me,” you insisted.
Shyly, I pronounced it in English, “Nuh-DEEN Ah-ROXY Dis-lee-OG-loo.”
“No, teach it to me the way your parents named you.”

25 March 2024 | Nadine Araksi/Նատին Արաքսի