I wanted to welcome you: Shushanig Gourghenian

“I wanted to welcome you
into my soul like a god,
lost and road weary
to hear you call this
home.

I wanted to restrict
the nightingale to but one
garden. And keep his free
songs for me
alone.

I wanted you jailed
in my breast as part
of the flow of my blood,
the sway of my
bones.

I wanted when I died
my name to be carved
on the hardest of monuments
your heart of
stone.”