A Ghazal to Reality

by Suren Oganessian | Sep 28, 2020 | Poetry

Suren Oganessian was born in Concord, California, going on to receive a BA in Human Communications from CSU Monterey Bay and an MFA in Creative Writing from Fresno State. He then taught English at the American University of Armenia in 2015. His first novel, "Odinochka: Armenian Tales from the Gulag", was published in 2016. He currently resides in Rockledge, Florida with his wife and son. He is an author and cartoonist, with forthcoming novels and a comics on the way.

A ghazal is an Arabic form of poetry consisting of a chain of at least five couplets in which each one can be read autonomously.

Ghazals typically deal with themes like loss and pain, as well as beauty and love despite them.

Monday isn’t real.
Tuesday through Sunday are just as imaginary.
You say “happy Friday” and that you hate Mondays.
The months and the year numbers and the calendars aren’t real.

Money isn’t real.
We waste our finite lives working for imaginary numbers.
Imaginary numbers decide who lives and dies.
The differences between a homeless man and Jeff Bezos aren’t real.

Scarcity isn’t real.
The imaginary numbers withhold our necessities
And force us to work dead end jobs while the CEO hoards wealth.
There’s enough food and homes for all; the excuses of the rich aren’t real.

Borders aren’t real.
The color-coded cloth we fly, the colorful nations on the map;
All human constructs; America doesn’t truly exist.
The lines we draw in the sand aren’t real.

Perhaps nothing exists save empty space and you.

Perhaps, as The Mysterious Stranger said, you are but a thought.

The name Suren is merely two grunts by a highly evolved primate.

Our names, our ethnicities, our identities, none of it is real.

Suren Oganessian

Suren Oganessian was born in Concord, California, going on to receive a BA in Human Communications from CSU Monterey Bay and an MFA in Creative Writing from Fresno State. He then taught English at the American University of Armenia in 2015. His first novel, "Odinochka: Armenian Tales from the Gulag", was published in 2016. He currently resides in Rockledge, Florida with his wife and son. He is an author and cartoonist, with forthcoming novels and a comics on the way.