Poem: “I’m a Greek Girl…”

I’m a Greek girl
out of Asia Minor
What have these eyes of mine looked on?
A vast despair.

I saw the Turks with swords,
the Turks with knives
slaughtering Greeks
with their forsaken hands.

As if the blood
that ran like a lake were not enough
they set the fire
and Smyrna burned.

As a bird takes flight
and cleaves the air
so we were flung to flight
and ended up here.

We left our homes behind
our households, all we’d made
and now, remembering them
our hearts split open