Long Ankara Poems

* This poem was written for a contest originally, but was used by Professor Anne-Marie Thornton of Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey, to teach her WAR POETRY class in the spring semester of 2017. My...

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Her small angelic face ...

Once a place where broad smiles bloomed like butterflies on marigolds,
is streaked with the furrows that countless tears have etched into the
layers of dust and dirt and explosive residue that now...

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for The Beloved, a night at Nedjima Bar (Ankara, Turkey)

… hypnosis shattered by atomic jiggling, salivation of song on your brow,
channeled chaos of body, spastic sound, tantrum of dark delight, unbuttoned vibrations   ...

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But what of Aysin? She'd be here by three. 
What seemed to me the perfect metaphor 
(young Ankara was her, old "Stamboul", me) 
was not an easy drive - five hours, and more! 

It's midnight...

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Give us this day our daily…

I do not even have to move my bottom much
remote control in hand I choose what they call
news just the old stuff in new wrappers blown
apart by endless bombing greed...

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The dream was of me
I dreamt off me in my dream
It was fearfully dreadful a dream
Long ago was the day of my last dream
Before the dream that came knocking on me
Startled still, as I opened...

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I felt a bit like Humbert, or John Proctor, 
an ageing vulture drawn to fresh young flesh. 
She was a pretty, witty Turkish doctor 
(so, not exactly plundering the creche!) 

She seemed to like me,...

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From Wisconsin the American walked the streets of Lagos
To black Africa welcome! To the pearly continent
Cradle of creation, primordial of civilizations
To the thickest jungles, haven of gigantic elephants
Den of fiercest lions and colourful gazelles
Ours is...

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Reading fridge magnets; surprised how interesting,
the world is when stamped into rubber decals.

Rome, Ankara, both Buda and Pest.
Watching a colorful rolling diorama,
pictographs tumbling over a flat white-scape.
Images recalling airport loudspeakers,
beeping taxi cabs and swaying camels.

I...

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A stable plate on two different trays
historically embracing the celebrated words of Caesar.
Home to the Hittites of old, St. Nicholas and the Antioch’s monument,
and a fine developing continuation of the ancient city of Troy.

From being...

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Alfred out fishing

Alfred, the pianist, who insists he is not my father,
And I went out fishing caught a few when I gutted one of them
We discovered a ring that Alfred said he had given to...

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I can’t tell it all
The joy and sorrow we endure together 
We can’t forget the devil who stole our clothes and made us  Angora rabbit in Ankara Tavsani.
I remember our nakedness that was showcase...

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The Unredeemed 
There are flashes when my liberal views falter
and I ask myself, these people like Breivik and 
the killers in Ankara and Paris would it not be
better to shoot them down like rabbit dogs?
my...

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we gathered our canteens
while coughing up
tar from the hidden gravel
across high terrain

through the mist of Ankara
teal fabric blew in the.breeze
over burnt orange fragments
torn from my temporal

mangled mind of madness
shifting the gates 
of emotional tiredness 
we'd...

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On the west coast of Africa
Stood a relics of ancient civilization 
A golden shore, a light at the end of the tunnel
A pillar upon which the freedom of Africa is built.

Blessed with so diverse a...

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Reading my fridge magnets,
I’m surprised how interesting
the world is
when stamped into rubber decals.
Rome, Ankara, both Buda and Pest.

I watch an oscilloscope between my ears,
the spikes are a sort of travel language
spoken only by bedbugs and...

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