In Praise of Phonetics
By Lory Bedikian
The great-great aunt plays dead When he tries to pull the gold tooth Out of her mouth. Not a pursing Of the eyes. Not a sound when He finally yanks the tooth out From root. Who knows how much Blood bled. Most things will never Have answers. For example, why Exactly Father perfectly developed Camptocormia, his right-angled Walk down the hall to answer Mother’s frustrated call. Her Refusal to help him with the cane Or walker. Just get to the damn Table, she most probably thought In her own language. Armenian Is not easy to translate when You love someone who never Told you their secrets. It remains A question of the pharynx, how Much was swallowed instead Of spoken. A throat can become Sand dune. If enough circulation Or wind rules the surroundings Anything can move. Even that Vertebrae that we thought Damaged for good could bring Itself back to stand at pier’s edge. Father, what were you looking For at the end of your life? What Made you think the rug, the tile Had answers? The phonology Of being bent seemed fair. Avoidance began to sing. I, too, do this all to avoid the thought: That if you looked any of us In the eyes, something might Extract itself, even violently. Even your death would suddenly Be pronounceable and alive.
Lory Bedikian’s collection, The Book of Lamenting, won the Philip Levine Prize for Poetry. Her forthcoming book, Jagadakeer: Apology to the Body, won the 2023 Prairie Schooner Raz-Shumaker Book Prize, and is forthcoming September, 2024 from the University of Nebraska Press. Bedikian’s poems received the Neruda Prize for Poetry in the 2022 Nimrod Literary Awards. Her work is included in the anthology Border Lines: Poems of Migration (KNOPF, 2020) and her manuscript-in-progress received a 2021 grant from the Money for Women/Barbara Deming Memorial Fund.
10/3 / Meet the Artist with visiting poet-in-residence K.T. Landon / The Library at The Betsy-South Beach, Miami Beach, FL / Live and Live-Streamed on Instagram Live/Facebook Live at @swwimmiami / 6:00 pm EST / Free
10/3 / Poetry Reading with visiting poet-in-residence K.T. Landon + local writer Deborah DeNicola / The Library at The Betsy-South Beach, Miami Beach, FL / Live and Live-Streamed on Instagram Live/Facebook Live at @swwimmiami / 7:00 pm EST / Free
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"A throat can become
Sand dune." I felt that all through my body!