Hunger
We pulled the carcass
of Karim’s sheep
from the heap of trash.
We remembered
the wayward shepherd
had lost his tracks
and wandered into
a minefield. We slept
in the underground
garage while night-
time missiles destroyed
the indoor bazaar,
the wheat silos,
the slaughterhouse.
We found the butcher
nailed to the hood
of his car. Hunger pangs
and dripping maggots
from the hanging sheep
kept us awake. Wives
soothed children to sleep
under the broken tractor.
Oil leaked on blankets.
We kept smoking
because no one wanted
to use the rusty pliers
to dismember Karim’s sheep.
biography
SHAHÉ MANKERIAN is the principal of St. Gregory Hovsepian School in Pasadena and the co-director of the L.A. Writing Project. He is the recipient of the Los Angeles Music Center’s BRAVO Award, which recognizes teachers for innovation in arts education. His manuscript, History of Forgetfulness, has been a finalist at the Crab Orchard Poetry Open Competition, the Bibby First Book Competition, the Quercus Review Press Poetry Book Award, and the White Pine Press Poetry Prize. In 2017, three literary journals, Border Crossing, Cahoodaloodaling, and Lunch Ticket nominated Mankerian’s poems for the Pushcart Prize. Antioch University’s literary publication, Lunch Ticket, nominated Mankerian’s poem “Inner City with Father” for the 2017 Best of the Net Anthology. Recently, Shahé received the 2017 Editors’ Prize from MARY: A Journal of New Writing.