Migrating Lyrics

This is dedicated to a friend whom I love and who will always remain dear to me, no matter what.

Sensing organs

What my heart would feel remains a mystery

or what my ears may hear at dawn...

The whistling of a locomotive, as it leaves the station,

travels towards us and once again

we tremble, smitten by love.

My dog has died. Who will be guarding my home?

This train I missed. When will a next one come?

And what if love is scattered - how are we to piece it back together?

We are such wells, brimming with water,

only by song.

Stepping outside

It’s cool and quiet

as on a peaceful sea.

Darkness is hanging out its purple cloak

on poplars’ ends.

With my scorched soles

I feel the rocks, the grass

barely showing and I head out –

no roundabouts and no illusions –

towards the butterfly sunset

in my childhood.

Regret

I finally wiped off my nails.

I had them done with branches, on forest green.

You did not get to see them and it makes me think

of what you are going to wear today:

your brother’s tee-shirt or the shirt I gave you?

Every day seems lost to us…

We build walls for ourselves, by heaping up fluttering wings,

to keep out the beasts and the light.

The bird-less skies reflect our profile in green and black.

The cover of the magazine where the above poems were published, in Turkish.