TE16 Turkish Delight

Karin Karakaşlı My mother kept crying for her baby. I heard my father’s voice. “God bless you,” he was telling someone. My mother said some prayers for that someone, the soft someone we fell against, and told her, “I’m expecting a girl, I’m going to name her after you.” Then I felt her unfamiliar hand. Her voicewas like song. “I wanted to have a baby but never did. I wrote a poem instead. Can I read it to her?” I heard my mother then. “Do read it, please, so that she may grow up to be a smart, decent human being like you,” she said. There was a pause.

Inside me you are, as no one else is the sweetest burden Before birth you’ve made me complete the surest wholeness Of my life, you The longest word,

My baby.

My waters warmed up, inside I smiled. No one knew. I wanted to thank, in my own way, my mother and this extremely soothing person. I pushed my foot against her hand where it was resting. She felt it, said, “dear God.” Her hand stayed there for a while longer. After that was more commotion. I knew this wasn’t an ordinary day. Whateverwas going to happen, this daywas it. Time, as itwas called, existed. It decided everything. We were at the end of life as

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