The Hye-Phen

made with love ⟩⟩ for a better digital / queer / armenian / future ֍

April

by | Aug 5, 2021 | Poetry

Elina Arbo is an Assyrian/Armenian-American archivist, urbanist, and writer based in New York City. Their interests include house music, Sayat Nova, and pomegranates. Elina is a student at Columbia pursuing a BA in Middle Eastern Studies and Urban Studies.

Pomegranate seeds grind against teeth.

It hurts but I don’t stop until the Spring

to adopt a new obsessive habit.

 

I could give a colloquium on my anxieties.
Etch them deep into a chalkboard.
Write endless dissertations about
everything wrong in the world.
My bones feel the pressure of the past

a little too deeply.

 

Sentences drop before breathing in
complete thoughts are not my forte.
Each day starts with a run-on

that seems to escape before it can be read.

 

Tongues are transient, words depart from lips
faster than I can recite them
but one day I will bite the words back.
Capture the moment in my palms
hold on to it for as long as possible

releasing it according to my own terms.

 

I am learning to love the ephemeral
earth beneath me
being grounded is rare.
Raindrops dance
on my face
and I let them.
Elina Arbo
Elina Arbo is an Assyrian/Armenian-American archivist, urbanist, and writer based in New York City. Their interests include house music, Sayat Nova, and pomegranates. Elina is a student at Columbia pursuing a BA in Middle Eastern Studies and Urban Studies.