Please Add Another Leaf to Your Red Poppy
For the Genocided Armenians
(1915-1923)
Before World War I
Our Genocide began.
You lost young soldiers,
Martyred with their guns,
Who went passionately,
Defending their Crown;
They did not return, . . .
Were lamented by their nation
By parents, wives, offspring,
And their countrymen.
You lost your bravest men . . . and
We felt your sadness.
We lost almost all our Artful, Literate
Voiceless, Devoted, Enslaved populaces
Slaughtered . . . raped . . . dehydrated . . .
Famined on the sunny Der-Zor sand!
When you remember your Armistice Day*,
Please remember, for your soldiers’ sake,
Our slaughtered young sons
Who never grew to become mature men!
They fell to defend their dignity . . .
Their faith, and yours, and each honest human,
Along with democracy . . . human rights . . .
Awake . . . return to your faith . . .
Remember the Armenian Genocide.
Add another leaf to your red poppy,
And make Remembrance Day
More humanitarian.
We have not yet regained our rights,
To our historic homeland
Our Biblical Mount Ararat of civilized hearts,
Where the martyred proud reign.
Sylva Portoian, MD
London, England
Editor’s note: This poem was originally published on April 24, 2007 in the author’s historic poetry book “Bring Out our Genocided Skulls & Artful Hands” available in Komitas Museum-institute in Yerevan. Sylva Portoian-Shuhaiber, MD, MSc, MFPHM, FRCP.CH (UK) (Pediatrician & Poet)Winner of The Carnegie Poetry Prize, Spring 2009. She is the author of 20 Historical Poetry Books in three languages published globally; and 10 medical articles in international journals including The Lancet.
*November 11, 1918