[stanza][lineate]The word crumbles with the arrival[/lineate]
[lineate]of its other half the word[/lineate]
[lineate]of nothingness and the placeless[/lineate]
[lineate]is the staple of my people[/lineate]
[stanza][lineate]they cannot ensure a clean death for me[/lineate]
[lineate]they cannot ensure my reincarnation back to those lands[/lineate]
[lineate]for my heart will start calling others[/lineate]
[lineate indent=10]— when the breath is crystalline[/lineate]
[stanza][lineate]Others who look alike[/lineate]
[lineate]are flying towards their archetypal mothers[/lineate]
[lineate]through vertical horizons declaring:[/lineate]
[lineate]‘no one is abandoned[/lineate]
[lineate indent=2]everyone is loved if not by their parents[/lineate]
[lineate indent=4]they are by their God yes!’[/lineate]
[stanza][lineate]The word is contagious when it is not written down[/lineate]
[lineate]it airs from a forgotten grave clinging on the tail[/lineate]
[lineate]of a breath that has no lungs behind it[/lineate]
[lineate]it hangs over bodies making love[/lineate]
[lineate]like a lamp illuminating the beauty of pale[/lineate]
[lineate indent=10]— here and there[/lineate]
[stanza][lineate]I’m looking forward to welcoming that word[/lineate]
[lineate]or else I’ll be left alone with the blue witch’s[/lineate]
[lineate]broom in the side alley[/lineate]
[lineate]of an unspeakable childhood[/lineate]
[lineate]or a bird will cross my path[/lineate]
[lineate]towards the end of my homeostatic cycle.[/lineate]
[stanza][lineate]~ Elif Sezen[/lineate]
[stanza]Elif Sezen was born in Melbourne in 1981 and grew up both there and in Izmir, Turkey. She settled in Melbourne in 2007. Also an interdisciplinary visual artist, she writes original poetry in English and in Turkish. In 2014 she published a Turkish translation of Ilya Kaminsky’s acclaimed book ‘Dancing in Odessa’, and her own first work in Turkish, ‘Gece Düşüşü’ (‘Fall.Night.’), an experimental mix of poetry and prose, was published in 2012. Her collection of poems ‘Universal Mother’ was recently published by GloriaSMH Press, and she has also published a chapbook titled ‘The Dervish with Wings’. She holds a PhD in Fine Arts from Monash University.
[stanza]Poet’s note: This poem first appeared in ‘Universal Mother’, GloriaSMH Press, 2016.