MY LANGUAGE

    By Kevork Kalayjian


    We live the joyous outbursts of energy
    in the death march of an ancient civilization
    as we see our language decay, we justify
    our laziness with the examples of lost cultures.
    our books are stored in storage boxes
    waiting to be exhibited by museums
    where our shame is sheltered, sealed
    within the walls of fear of being different!

    It was so easy to overcome
    organized persecution, segregation
    religious intolerance, and color differentiation,
    all those were a breeze compared to the
    government organized race annihilation,
    the definite death in the unending desert sand,
    but we don't care to find out
    how to overcome this new threat
    This new partition, based on the ability to spend
    cash on Berger King, Pizza and movies, or
    charging our future on such classy items as,
    Four Seasons, Disney's, health spas, or searching
    connections with jazz, rap, or Yo Yo Ma.

    Our artists survive by serving meals at the diner,
    our writers are in insurance sales. Thank God!
    Now they can read between the lines!
    Our language is not even used for cursing,
    let alone for the expression of love, admiration,
    hate, or praying to the one who knows it all!

    My language still speaks to my soul
    but I cannot translate it anymore!


--
Kevork K. Kalayjian, Jr.  is a graduate of the AGBU's Melkonian
Educational Institute, Nicosia, Cyprus, and holds a B.A. in Political
Science and Economics from Fairleigh Dickinson University, Rutherford,
NJ, a M. Ed. in Counseling Psychology, from WilliamPaterson University,
Wayne, NJ, and CPA requirements completed at Pace University, NYC.
Kevork resides in NY and likes to paint and write. Some of his poems
have been published in literary periodicals such as "Ararat" and at
www.poetry.com.