A Dreamer’s Poem

Because in knowing how to break the silence
     I do not give up any part of myself,
Because in knowing loneliness and tears
     I do not yield to the vacuum of each day,
Because my heart races past the smiles
     that bandage the pain of living,
Because my head throbs with millions of
     colliding thoughts, love buried in hate,
     truth buried in lies, education buried
     in ignorance...
I dream, I envision, I picture,
     I picture my love as a lonely bird
           perched on a crystal branch
                  of imagination.
 

                                         February 12, 1990
                                      --Alexander Shaumyan