The Iowa Review
Volume 35
Issue 3 Winter 2005-2006
2005
In the New Church
Gregory Djanikian
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Djanikian, Gregory. "In the New Church." The Iowa Review 35.3 (2005): 126-127. Web.
Available at: http://ir.uiowa.edu/iowareview/vol35/iss3/48
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Article 48
GREGORY
DJANIKIAN
In theNew Church
We were
but
in church
our service.
it wasn't
We were
but not
confessing
in our language.
The priest had a beard,
but neither thick nor long enough
to veil the sorrows of the heart.
There were
but none
crosses
on the altar
of them Armenian
flaring at the edges
like the fires of Van.
There were
no censers
filled with myrrh
our prayers
wafting
of intercession.
There were
Stephen and Mark
but not Sahag or Mesrob.
There were Ann and Mary
but not Sandoukht
or Sirvart.
body was in the bread
but no other body.
There was His blood in the wine
Christ's
but no other
blood.
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There was
the liturgy
us
to our feet,
bringing
the choristers
singing hosannas
from the book of praise,
but there was
keeping
written
another
book
us invisibly on our knees,
in the names of our fathers
and for our other voices.
127