“The Trace and the Mountain”
They say there’s forest in me —
a faint whisper from the West.
But it is only a trace,
and I am a mountain.
I am not ash from Europe’s fire.
I am the dust of Gonur.
The stone of Urartu.
The ridge of Maikop.
Let them keep their myths.
I have blood that remembers
how to walk in silence
and still stand tall.