Three apples fell from Heaven, one for the storyteller, one for the listener and one for the eavesdropper.* From each apple fell a million stories. From each story fell an alphabet from which fell a civilization. From each civilization fell violence and also a tender love. From each tender love fell a family and children. From each child fell a grandmother who made pakhlava and built an ark full of myths. From each ark fell a mountain, and then a nation, and then a war. From each mountain, nation, war, fell the dead, the survivors. From each survivor fell a wound, a world, a wish, a Heaven, three apples and this story.
* How Armenian folktales begin
Lori Yeghiayan Friedman's most recent work has appeared or is forthcoming in Mizna, Longleaf Review, Lost Balloon, Pithead Chapel, Memoir Land and the Los Angeles Times. Her creative nonfiction has twice been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She earned an MFA in Theatre from UC San Diego and attended the Tin House Winter Workshop 2023. Follow her on X/Twitter, Instagram and Bluesky: @loriyeg
'History Lesson.' was previously published in Emerge Literary Journal, Issue 21, January 2022.
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