David Garyan: California Poets Part 11, Five Poems
Updated: Oct 9
David Garyan
October 20th, 2026
California Poets: Part XI
David Garyan
One Poem
The Nature of Duality
photo by Arthur Ovanesian
Darkness of Heart
Human rights are what we have to defend, without reflexive verbs.
—Oscar Wilde
The flag of Palestine.
The flag of Israel.
Flying on social media.
But there’s no wind.
Too perfect on our pages.
Even bloody and torn ones
no longer stir up response.
The screen is a filter for pain.
To screen is a verb with two faces.
On the street, bang, bang, boom.
Behind the monitor, click, click, zoom.
Protect yourself from terror.
Broadcast the horror.
Israel-Palestine: The Conflict.
The Gucci conflict.
A brand we all know.
Targets we all see.
Branded people.
Their troubles so far.
People with brands.
Too far to reach.
Targeted lives.
A bit higher aim here.
Lives with targets.
Here aim a bit higher.
Branded right in front of our eyes.
Targets left behind the display.
In this mayhem, no voices exist.
Only fingers command.
Build fences out of hashtags.
Let doves of peace tweet,
but don’t dare let them fly.
Once more the flag of Ukraine.
Flying on social media.
Again without wind.
But tons of engagement.
Engagement or engagement?
A word that’s in fact
two separate words.
And even this is a lie.
We just have a term—
in all senses separate(d).
From what you may ask?
Or maybe from who?
From the world at large—
and its own troubles too.
Soldiers captured the enemy.
Partners captured the heart.
Users caught up with content.
Some content caught you like this.
#Z.
Wars on the internet.
Fought by what sides?
Those who haven’t—
and never will—
fight with a gun.
Russians and Ukrainians
getting caught up.
Can it still be?
Yes, in their problems,
but not in each other.
“When the past catches up,
catching up in the present is hard.”
You see how it is then—
possible but impossible.
Like Armenians marrying Turks.
Now the flag of Armenia.
Flying on social media.
Not only no wind,
but also no brand.
Less engagement than Ukraine—
why, almost none.
Yet, Russians
and Ukrainians
still engage Armenians—
so romantic, you see.
But. Alexandr avoids
Armen in love with Olena.
So. Oleksandr avoids
Hayk married to Lena.
Alas, love is just war,
yet war can’t be love.
In the end it’s all
but engagement—
the sound of a word
that never existed.
So what does it mean?
In truth it means nothing.
Silence is really how
some stories are told.
When they ask
where is Armenia,
what they in fact want
to know is where do we lie?
It’s time to pretend.
Mishear Romania.
Make them think Dracula,
not Kim Kardashian.
They know her too well—
our country not much.
She has brand and a brand.
The first catches on.
The second may
catch up with anyone.
But she cannot and will not
get caught up with enemies.
Cannot—she will not
marry a Turk.
Will not—she cannot
pick up a weapon.
That’s the virtue
of trademark.
The press loves
a strong woman.
It couldn’t care less
about oppressed
women in Africa.
Pain is a narcissist.
It only likes selfies.
And don’t expect help.
No one’s got time
to portray this for you.
That plight is yours.
Own it alone.
Share it and like it.
But not what’s unlike you.
Your digital temple—
inside you must worship.
Worship what’s higher.
But leave out the “other.”
Jewish grief far and wide.
Only Jews take a selfie—
that image of sorrow
the whole world should see.
Ukrainian grief high and low.
None but Ukrainians take a selfie—
that same image of sorrow,
to view in full view.
Armenian grief, past-present-and-future.
Armenians alone take a selfie—
once again the same image:
sorrow for all in sharp focus.
But you rarely find this:
“Ani’s Pain”
photo by Esther
“Esther’s Pain”
photo by Ani
“Olha’s Pain”
photo by Olga
“Olga’s Pain”
photo by Olha
Ethiopians slaughtered.
Only Ethiopians spoke up.
And the result?
No engagement. No brand.
This is the mantra.
Less photoshoots.
More shooting.
African blood—
the eyes see too much,
the web sees too little.
That’s content over quantity. The algorithms of suffering.
So many stay hungry.
so few come to help.
Keywords: boring,
generic, distant.
Turkey tells us
protect human rights:
“Rwanda was a genocide.
Hamas fights for freedom.
Israel is an occupier.
We freed Northern Cyprus.
China—Uyghur Genocide.
Turkey—No Armenian Genocide.”
Defend one justice
but not another.
What does it mean?
Protect your own interests
by protecting some human rights.
The bazaar of due process.
Not once too bizarre.
Equity defenders
versus
equity salesmen.
Equity versus equity.
The classic war of ideologies.
In the most classical sense.
We sell you defense.
We defend the market of justice.
The price of peace.
The price of war.
The price of oil.
The price of life—
those shares
keep going down.
Dump them now.
Invest in Kamikaze drones.
The market is free.
It never lies.
So don’t you disturb it.
What it knows is what’s right,
and it always knows this:
America first,
the rest take a piss.
First-degree burns.
Not so severe.
First-degree murder.
That’s many a-year.
What’s hot is so sexy.
What kills is hot-button.
So don’t look away—
we’ve come dressed to kill.
Truly unthinkable.
But in the US,
it’s just what we think.
And the market keeps buying it—
first, all that’s honest and true,
then, honestly, the mere
truth it can chew.
The West pretends to like Africa,
but what it wants is the goods.
Attractive commerce
crosses out borders.
Agreements for people
are mostly crossed out.
Cars as commodities
are hence free to cross.
People as beings
are put in the crosshairs.
Gold. Cocoa. Petroleum.
We want what’s valuable.
So Wall Street
keeps shunning
the value of history.
1936: “It is us today.
It will be you tomorrow.”
The words of Haile Selassie.
Three years later,
Germany invaded Poland.
The chain, so far,
has carried.
Who will be next?
I’m deeply grateful to Arthur Ovanesian for his suggestions
Author Bio:
David Garyan has published the long-standing anthology, California Poets, for over six years. He lives in Trento, Italy.
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