For a whole month corpses were observed floating down
the River Euphrates nearly every day, often in batches.
--from the account of a German missionary
Say that nothing
happened in 1915
no massacres in Zeitoun
no Van or Kharpert
no wild dogs lapping
at the throats of the dead
say there were no eyewitnesses
no missionaries in the mountains of Kars
no death caravans
winding through the streets
say there were no consuls at the window
hearing the cries
say nothing occurred
none of it a matter of public record
no million dead or million more
scarred into silence
say nothing happened
no one heard
and say the hunger deserts
were empty of all the voices
and the rivers of thirst
were flowing like other rivers
without memory now
of any of it