AS THE EARTH FLOWED RED

	By Knarik O. Meneshian


	The old woman Takouhi
	Watches the fly
	Climb up the window screen.
	She blinks 
	As wind blows strands
	Of white hair across her face.

	Pressing her crooked finger
	Against the screen,
	She points
	To pink roses spotted brown,
	Half-shriveled tomato plants
	Sprawled on the ground.

	And she remembers... 
	Her mother and father
	Dead in the fields, 
	Her baby brother
	Tossed in the river,
	And her big sister 
	Dragged away by men - 
	Long ago,
	When the heavens screamed
	As the earth flowed red
	On land where her people lived.

	Takouhi, called Queenie 
	On this new land that's been so good to her,
	Looks at her rough, knobby hands,
	And she remembers...
	When they were soft and plump
	As she stroked her mother's face - and they smiled,
	As she touched her father's prickly chin - and they grinned,
	As she held her sister's hand - and they sang, 
	As she played with her brother - and they laughed,
	The day before 
	The heavens screamed
	As the earth flowed red
	On land where her people lived.

	Takouhi blinks
	And wipes away tears
	As she remembers...
	Her people - the Armenians,  
	The day
	The earth flowed red.


	April 24, 1915
	In memory of one and one-half million Armenian men, women, and
	children - three-quarters of the Armenian Nation - who
	perished at the hands of the Turkish government in 1915 in
	Turkish-occupied Armenia.
   
--
Knarik O. Meneshian was born in Austria. Her father was Armenian from
Armenia, and her mother, Austrian from Austria. She is a writer and
teacher. She is married and lives in Glenview, Illinois with her
family.  In 1991, Knarik taught English in the village of Jrashen
(Spitak Region), Armenia. In 2002-2003, she and her husband lived in
Armenia for a year as volunteers and taught English and Computers in
Gyumri and Tsaghgadzor. Her works have been published in American and
Armenian publications.