Avedis stood at the rail
staring into the water
on the crossing
from Southern France
into Manhattan;
black waves with red foam
following the ship across
the Atlantic, the memory
of the dead from the Great War
filling his throat like the bodies
of fish too small to travel alone
riding inside dolphins and whales.
Avedis meant “brings
good news” in Armenian;
on Ellis Island, they called
him James, then Jimmy,
erasing the news he brought
as well as his past;
on land, in the new country
he practiced saying
his name, like tiny bones
the sound splintered
on his tongue.
Michael Minassian is a Contributing Editor for Verse-Virtual, an online magazine. His chapbooks include poetry: The Arboriculturist (2010) and photography: Around the Bend (2017). For more information: https://michaelminassian.com
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