11/February/2022

this world: no eyes, all eyes

by: Perla Kantarjian





you see eyes, i see
timer /
measuring tape /
calculator /
persecutor /
neck rope /
denominator /
pendulum /
hourglass /
all cerebral /
denotative /
mechanical /
not a tender bone /
the poets /
are wrong /

you see, in Armenian,
when someone looks at you too much,
your friend will say: ge tchapveyirgor
you were being measured.


--
About the writer
I'm Perla Kantarjian, a Lebanese-Armenian who was based in Beirut until a few months ago when I was awarded the Sonny Mehta Scholarship for writers which enabled my MA studies in Creative Writing (Poetry) at the University of East Anglia. I'm a writer/journalist/editor with written works appearing in over 25 publications, including The Hellebore, Harpy Hybrid Review, International Literary Quarterly, and The Armenian Weekly. Formerly, I was executive editor of Carpe Diem, the literary segment of the prestigious Lebanese daily Annahar Newspaper. I'm also a member of Creative Armenia, Rusted Radishes, International Armenian Literary Alliance, and UEA New Writing Live. Recently, my poem "but I am only fiercely dreaming" was selected Editor's Choice by Panoply and nominated for a Pushcart; but my main highlight of the year is having my surrealist poem "Half Woman, Half Starlight" selected by the founder of the Lunar Codex project to be amongst the time capsule art collection which will be launched to the moon and archived on its surface in early 2022.  








THIS PC IS IN POWER SAVING MODE

SUBMISSION by Perla Kantarjian“With the ancestral, almost seraphic brass
incense censer he brings out on the days he feels sentimental, he draws a gentle cross atop my head. “Asdvadz hedet ella bab,” he says softly. May god be with you when you leave. Which leaving is he speaking of?” (Read More)

THIS WORLD: NO EYES, ALL EYES

SUBMISSION by Perla Kantarjian “you see, in Armenian, when someone looks at you too much, your friend will say: ge tchapveyirgor—
you were being measured” (Read More)

“CITIZEN SCIENCE”/”SCIENCE CITIZEN” AT THE TABLE: DEAD GRAMMARS AND A CITATIONAL LESSON

SUBMISSION by Anna Nguyen“This idea is in direct contrast to the abstraction of an autonomous science as a mythical global force where it freely travels. After all, science precedes the scientist. The noun (science) becomes an actor, the actor (the scientist) becomes passive. Discovery and its magic are underscored, obscuring colonialism or what the anthropologist Shiv Visvanathan calls genocide or political vivisection” (Read More)

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SUBMISSION by Amanda ReCupido“Capitalism demands an endless cycle of products and purchasing. Destruction in order to make and sell you something, whether you need it or not, whether it’s good for our Earth or not. Exponential growth is unsustainable.” (Read More)