EXILE

	By Sako Arian


	You choose exile;
	Exile is not a fruit that grows old
	And falls from a sad yellow tree.
	Exile is not a manna that falls from the sky...
	No matter how much it wears out,
	You feel that it is renewed in you
	and you feel it sowing seeds in your eyes.
	.....
	
	Exile opens new roads,
	New untidy chambers,
	Rooms filled with dirty plates,
	And badly ironed  shirts,
	An empty can of caviar!
	And a cursing neighbourExile has no cafes,
	where good old friends are lost
	Especially literary friends!
	And those who write
	Do so for their own satisfaction...
	
	They....
	Sonya with her old pains,
	Sevan and his green hopes,
	Koorken with his poetic nostalgia,
	Manoyan and his doubts.
	...
	
	Exile
	Where
	Ishkhan Jinbashian writes but only
	About his daily silence!
	Vahe is busy most of the time
	And never writes about your exile ...His answers are short
	Only one line.
	And the old poets who took your address
	And promised to answer in your exile!
	Friends far from me.
	Some of them in old exiled towns;
	I think of them now
	I think of Taner Akcham
	I think of his exile.
	....
	
	Exile
	Where my students
	Are near me.
	A deep endless exile
	Which leads you to a new perfection
	Where you can wash your dirty plates
	Your green nostalgia
	Exile~


	Copyright © 2000 Sako Arian.


SAKO Arian was born in 1972 in Bourdj-Hamoud, Lebanon. He studied in
Beirut. In 1997 he published his first book of poetry in Armenian
entitled "Tartam Toqer" (Hesitant Lines). In 2000 he published his
second book entitled "Kanai Harsanik" (Marriage in Cana). His poems
have been published in Open Letter Magazine, in Los Angeles, and
Literary Horizon, in Montreal. Currently he teaches Armenian language
in Melkonian Educational Institute in Nicosia, Cyprus. Recently he has
started writing poems in English too.