TE16 Turkish Delight

Let Me Out Here, Please opened the lid. On the velvet padding rested the necklaces and small figurine Mukaddes had mentioned. And a poem…heaven knows what state of mind caused someone to put these in the box, thought Sırhupi. She sensed a kind of resignation emanating from the contents of the box. The brittle strength of one giving up things too valuable to throw away yet too painful to keep. The things life made people do. She raised the paper up to the light as though reading something sacred. At first her lips moved visibly, then words began filling the emptiness of the house.

THE SCORE

What the days brought was so much laughter into our children’s world We knew the morning as the name of a friend the night; as her scent Creaking stairs, apple cookies, lemonade sweaty backs, scabbed knees, stained clothes we were We were in giddy stories, shared secrets We knew one another, that was all Like fish know the sea

What the days took away became many a belief over the years There came a dullness Neither the fish were left, nor the sea We didn’t know to treasure our common bounty That is the reason In past tense Are our present, spent apart

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