Tsavd Tanem. Let me take your pain. As in

I’ll eat it. I’ll vomit it. I’ll transform

it. All that horror spewed. Call me Shaman

of Thieves and Sonnets. Call me a Firestorm

that Heals. If not now then when? If not me

then who? This is what a Hungry Ghost dreams

of. You say that you wail like a banshee

during sex. I say nightmares and daydreams

taste the same. Tsavd Tanem. Hymn that stifles.

Song that bleats. This is what a Hungry Ghost

dreams of; such tasty morsels. Tsavd Tanem.

Tsavd Tanem. Tsavd Tanem. All these, “trifles.”

Love, let me take this from you. You almost

gave up. Call me Cursed; my one pseudonym.

][][

Notes.

In Armenian, Tsavd Tanem (Ցավդ տանեմ) is a colloquially phrase used to express sympathy or affection. I, on the other hand, am taking it literally. In Buddhism, Hungry Ghosts (餓鬼) are spirits who are driven by unquenchable emotional needs, often depicted as tormented by grotesque desires that they are unable to ever fulfill. If that doesn’t sum up my entire life in a nutshell I don’t know what would.