DIASPORA

	by Lisa Marzonie


	the pomegranate
	crushed underfoot
	is empty of
	its blood-red juice.
	careless harvesters
	do not know
	"unless a seed fall and die..."
	uninformed they stripped the land.
	one small field
	now is bare,
	but all the earth
	the blood received;
	absorbed the tears,
	the blood, the pain.
	blind marauders
	could not envision
	life springing forth,
	imagining it dead and gone.
	all-wise Vinedresser
	sympathetically tending
	sees;
	finally the soil
	watered with tears
	no longer red,
	but greening.
	the blood-red kernels
	have taken root,
	sprouted, borne a millionfold,
	producing now a harvest of plenty.
	none must go empty away!
	in new soil grow
	and feed our brothers.
	in festal garment
	now unite,
	abundance share,
	but do not forget
	your thanks to offer.
	from one pomegranate
	all the earth is fed.


--
Lisa Marzonie is married and the mother of six. She is currently busy
with homeschooling, and is doing genealogy and engaged in
self-directed study of Armenian culture, hoping to pass on knowledge
and traditions to the next generation. Her maternal grandparents were
from Aintab, Turkey. Most of their family was lost in the genocide.
Her poetry has been written primarily for her family.