Like Water on Stone by Dana Walrath

Author:Dana Walrath [Walrath, Dana]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 978-0-385-37329-6
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2014-11-10T16:00:00+00:00

I know

it is a lie.

“Look

in your pockets.

See the dolma

in the pot?

Feel the seams.”

“Nuts

“Nuts

bastegh

halva

coins

basturma

Mama.”

Mama.”

Ardziv

Mustafa met Kaban

by the river

at sundown.

They found their bodies.

They washed them of blood.

It was worse for the wife.

Good they brought a cloth

to cover her.

Him, Papa,

the one I promised,

they slashed his throat,

the gash so deep

his skull hung on

by ragged bands of muscle only.

They each took one,

one body,

Mustafa him,

Kaban her.

She was wrapped in a cloth,

her clothes all gone,

her breasts severed,

her womb removed.

They carried them to Kaban’s garden

to wash them,

to make them pure

for the grave,

Mustafa him,

Palewan her.

Kaban dug the grave.

As Palewan washed her she said,

“Thank you, Allah,

for sparing our grandchild.

Thank you, Allah,

for sparing Anahid.

Thank you, Allah,

for taking her from here

so she never had to see

what soldiers did to her mother.”

Palewan washed her,

cleaned her,

made her pure for the shroud.

Under the smell of blood

rose the unmistakable smell

of man between her legs.

She washed this from her, too.

Rising moonlight

slanted through trees.

Shovel scraped

earth and rock.

They wrapped them

in simple shrouds.

They laid them together,

placing stones

in the shape of a cross

on top of them.

They covered the stones

with earth.

They transplanted mint

into earth

so no one would see

what lay below.

They buried Anahid’s cross

separately,

inside a small ceramic bowl

from Abder,

with a fitted lid,

a very shallow grave

that they could find again.

Together they prayed for a time

when it would be safe

for the coming child to know

his mother was Armenian.

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