--- G R E G O R Y   D J A N I K I A N

                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