Arash;
Fearless. Peerless.
Vying, dying. Ruing,
terra nullius. Obscuro.
Jingo.

This is a poem based on the ancient Persian myth of the heroic-archer, Arash. A story of self-sacrifice. But here, I interpret the myth from an apolitical humanist point of view. I’ve written this poem as a cinquain; combining 3 unique forms of cinquain in one. The first form uses 1 word, then 2, then 3, then 4, then 1 word per subsequent line. The second form uses a pronoun, then 2 adjectives, then 3 words ending in -ing, then a phrase, then a different noun describing the pronoun. The third form uses 2 syllables, then 4, then 6, then 8, then 2 syllables for each subsequent line. The unification of these forms is intended to add another layer to a poem about the spurious divide between ethnicity—and by extension, nations. Published here August 26, 2020.

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