Architecture

Our ancestors invented the squinch to support a rounded dome

upon a square wall. Hardly an inch

in English texts credit them at all.

In Byzantine times one of us tried

outlining colored glass with lead, start-

ing stained glass, now classified

as medieval European art.

The bema of a church is still Armenian

but other parts have Latin names.

We knocked our pagan temples down

and let our other neighbors claim

the arch. The trouble was

(and the same troubles stay)

kings and conquerors, not architects

arrange history their way.

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