{"id":13816,"date":"2017-07-22T16:46:06","date_gmt":"2017-07-22T21:46:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/?p=13816"},"modified":"2017-12-13T11:49:06","modified_gmt":"2017-12-13T17:49:06","slug":"landscape-armenia-1915","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/archives\/13816","title":{"rendered":"Landscape"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Armenia, 1915<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Everything that is inevitable<br \/>\nhas already happened.<\/p>\n<p>My dead bones<br \/>\nbeneath this earth.<\/p>\n<p>My unholy spine<br \/>\n&amp; needy claws. Today<\/p>\n<p>&amp; every single day, the grey-steam clouds<br \/>\nare lower than they have ever been.<\/p>\n<p>Short bare trees edge from the earth<br \/>\n&amp; I shiver below the earth.<\/p>\n<p>The landscape is made of dust.<br \/>\nThe Syrian desert is made of dust.<\/p>\n<p>Little pieces of bone<br \/>\ncrushed deep to gravel.<\/p>\n<p>Swallowing gold will kill you.<br \/>\nToo much of it will kill you.<\/p>\n<p>We prosper in gold. We live in it.<br \/>\nIt\u2019s a funny thing to exist for nothing<\/p>\n<p>more than the surprising feat of survival.<br \/>\nOr chance. And the thing that kills us.<\/p>\n<p>To take a mountain. To stain<br \/>\na landscape. To burn a city. To kill<\/p>\n<p>a poet. We breathe together. Real gods<br \/>\nknife you up. I see myself<\/p>\n<p>in the water. <em>I was trying<\/em><br \/>\n<em>to swallow the water.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>A reversal of faith\u2014<em>what kind of god<\/em><br \/>\n<em>would allow this to happen?<\/em>\u2014or, more<\/p>\n<p>likely: <em>what kind of god would intervene<\/em><br \/>\n<em>in something like this?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>They kept their faith. They understood that their god<br \/>\ncould do nothing when he, too, was protecting<\/p>\n<p>himself. He tried<br \/>\nhis best. He stained<\/p>\n<p>his clothes. He plucked women<br \/>\nfrom the water. <em>I was trying to drown<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>in the water<\/em>. He washed them ashore.<br \/>\nHe saved their children. He ate them<\/p>\n<p>but only because he was starving.<br \/>\n<em>I\u2019m so sorry<\/em>, he said. <em>But they are starving me.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The women understood. The men<br \/>\nwere slaughtered trying.<\/p>\n<p>Trying slaughtered. We still have objects<br \/>\nfrom the old country. Last night, I woke from a dream<\/p>\n<p>with a piece of the dream in my hand.<br \/>\nThey were three flat<\/p>\n<p>angular gold pieces. I held them<br \/>\nuntil they disappeared.<\/p>\n<p>Slowly, they melted into my hands<br \/>\n&amp; I woke up.<\/p>\n<p>They live inside me.<br \/>\nThey live in my hands.<\/p>\n<h6><a href=\"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/archives\/13891\">TALIN TAHAJIAN<\/a><\/h6>\n<h6><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Armenia, 1915 Everything that is inevitable has already happened. My dead bones beneath this earth. My unholy spine &amp; needy claws. Today &amp; every single day, the grey-steam clouds are lower than they have ever been. Short bare trees edge from the earth &amp; I shiver below the earth. The landscape is made of dust. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1425,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[53],"tags":[25],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Jypy-3AQ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13816"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1425"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13816"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13816\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14037,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13816\/revisions\/14037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}