Jagadakeer: Apology to the Body

Lory Bedikian is the author of The Book of Lamenting, winner of the Philip Levine Prize for Poetry. Her poems have been published in multiple journals, including Tin House, the Adroit Journal, the Los Angeles Review, and Gulf Coast. She teaches poetry workshops in Los Angeles.  

Ode to Their Leaving

Hiereeg [means father in Armenian]

Meditation on Fractured Vertebrae
Father dreams of Gibran
Theorizing Vahan’s Departure
Psychosomatic disorder
Chaparral
If only he had written his refugee song
WHEN YOU ARE WRITING YOUR FATHER’S HEADSTONE
The Tooth is Dead

Miereeg [means mother in Armenian]

Before the Elegy, Speak to Her
Fragments of Melancholy from Those Rooms, Those Rooms
Broccoli
The pharmaceutical that killed my mother
Syllabics for My Mother
Zevart, Ode to Joy
Fragment
Sestina, as my mother cooks
Another word for bitterness is ache

Yehs [means I in Armenian]

Apology to the Body
Looking at the MRI Six Years Later
Beloved Denial
Ode to Illness: rant in the form of monologue
Hypochondria
Needle Biopsy
Optic Neuritis
I make love to my lesions
Defining 50 Lesions
Partial Tubectomy Revisited
Harmonic Implications on Daylight Saving Time
Manifesto

In Lieu of an Epilogue

When Your Mother Dies During a Pandemic
Pandemic Tally: At Odds with May
Longevity: part pseudo-memoir, part commentary
Flare-Up: Week Eleven, Twelve
Lexicon
The Disease in Me May Be a Demigod After All
Ability
My Shaking Hand Will Not Determine My Fate
To have a backbone can also mean to have spunk

Jagadakeer: In Remission

1. History
2. Exam
3. Technique
4. Comparison
5. Findings
6. Impression: without contrast
7. Impression: with contrast

Acknowledgments