Michael Minassian -My Doubles

Minassian LE P&W 2 Nov-Dec 2024

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Live Encounters Poetry & Writing Volume Two November-December 2024

My Doubles, poems by Michael Minassian.

These poems were written while in residence at the Toji Cultural Foundation, Wonju, South Korea, September 2024. Grateful acknowledgement is made to the Foundation, the staff, and my fellow writers in residence.


My Doubles

There’s one, crossing
Harvard Square.

He looks a lot like me,
carrying a backpack
& listening to music
with headphones on.

Another one just got on
a bus at the Port Authority
on his way to New Jersey
& the town where I used to live.

Friends & strangers
often say I resemble
their priest or grocer,
brother or long lost uncle.

Still I wonder how many
doubles I have in the world,
like the person who looked
a lot like me, & turned pale

when he saw my face
as he was about to board
the subway, & stepped
back on the platform instead.


Fragments of Memory

My father is driving a car,
my mother in the passenger seat.

I am very young
sitting alone in the back.

They are arguing, I hear my name,
my mother turns & points at me.

I hear my name again.
Suddenly the car has a flat tire.

We all get out of the car
& my father tells me to change the flat.

My fingers too small to handle the jack,
the tire taller than I am.

A car full of teenagers stops,
they jack up the car & put on the spare.

I get in the car with them,
now a teenager myself.

My parents drive away,
still arguing, but I’m somewhere else.


Poems Like Small Bones

Some poems wait
beyond our reach
or ability to bring
them to page
in the physical world.

Some poems stay buried
in the past or future,
singing to themselves,
waiting for a listener
to bring them to light.

In ancient times, poems
were spoken aloud,
rhyme and repetition
helped pass them
from speaker to speaker.

How much was lost
when words were set down
to parchment or paper,
stirred like small bones
in a freshly unearthed grave.


© Michael Minassian

Michael Minassian lives with his wife in Southern New England. He is a Contributing Editor for Verse-Virtual, an online poetry journal. His poetry collections Time is Not a River, Morning Calm, and A Matter of Timing as well as a chapbook, Jack Pays a Visit, are all available on Amazon. For more information: https://michaelminassian.com

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