Inheritance 

by Lena Dakessian Halteh

When we leave, you’ll be given a chest of things
And these things you’ll carry. 
Mama’s paintings, grandmother’s gold,
Photographs that obscure the limits of memory. 
You’ll find the ones of solemn faces seated in rows 
Mothers and fathers
Boys in buttoned vests 
and little girls with bows that billow out from their dark hair. 
Tatiks and Papiks, Tetas and Sidos—
You, too, will be curious.
You’ll wander into the dark pools of their eyes
And come to understand that you also carry them. 
You, my loves, belong to the ancient trees,
The pomegranate and the olive. 
You are of salt and water, sand and soil.
Peaceful like our mountains, unrelenting like the sea. 
You are tied to lands taken from
those who walked through deserts.
Their keys of return will weigh on your hearts. 
Return to where? 
To buildings that no longer stand
Or streets that don’t exist. 
No signs to guide you home. 
And you’ll live with disasporan disconnect and longing. 
Descended from those who could not be erased
By genocide, displacement, dispossession.
And the melodies of the duduk and the oud 
will both uplift and grieve you.
But this is not where the stories of your people began,
Or where their stories end. 
You will find hands to grasp and together 
You’ll dance the kochari and the dabke. 
You’ll smile as the apricot and almond blossoms
Part from their branches 
And float towards the heavens in spring. 
You will pick from the olive and pomegranate trees come fall. 
You, too, will resist erasure
And feel honor in what you carry. 
For you, my children, 
Belong to the Caucasus and the Levant 
And the pathways that bind them. 
And your hearts will beat for your homelands
As distant drums sound in the mountains. 

Lena Dakessian Halteh is an Armenian-American writer, multidisciplinary artist and storyteller. Lena earned her B.A in English Literature and Art History from UC Berkeley and later returned to pursue a Master’s Degree from UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism. In 2017 she launched Pom + Peacock, an illustration brand inspired by her Armenian heritage. Her storytelling is heavily rooted in Armenian culture, nostalgia and over two decades of performing and teaching with ARAX Dance, a company specializing in both traditional and contemporary Armenian movement. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and three little ones where she continues to pursue projects in fine art, illustration, narrative nonfiction, fiction and children’s storytelling genres.