ç o k   g ü z e l – poem

           for Sarik, Lale, and Leyla – with Love

Your ash and smoke have

filled my skin

The silent music enlarges

my lungs

Celebrate and whisper on

each hand and eye that

loved me

Further than the green lights

from the opposite side

I love your home          because

I know that you are there

From where I always stood

in the cool cathedral of the night

I could, at last, see further

than myself

Even stones spoke in an

eloquent tongue as soft

as flesh as liquid as constant,

washing water over turquoise tiles

and my mouth and hands and

feet were washed away

Leaving is another stone

that is dissolved in sleep

Mountains and snow are the

memory of separation in a

dream of leaving and coming back,

again.

(c) 1988, 2015 ~ Jessan Dunn (DeCredico) Otis