The Turkish Bath | Hamam

By | 1 February 2017
Pages: 1 2
Foamed, steamed, speechless

ghosts —  


I, my grandmother and a few

others — How nice, angels 


are more visible here.

I feel more feminine, and


all women start looking alike

Is this a way to pay one’s account?


To whom?

No one knows what’s happening here


my grandmother thinks

of boiling potatoes for supper 


and yet I am bathing Nietzsche’s

Zarathustra in my mind’s eye 


Look how much

the truth hurts us in this sogginess,


an Ottoman lullaby is strained out of anxiety,

tinkles in my belly button. 


I drown in laughter

from the hypothermia of my soul.





The Turkish Bath

[audio:https://cordite.org.au/audio/hamam-the-turkish-bath.mp3|titles=The Turkish Bath] (0:51)
Pages: 1 2
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Elif Sezen, born in Melbourne in 1981, grew up both here and in Izmir, Turkey. She settled in Melbourne in 2007. Also an interdisciplinary visual artist, she writes original poetry in English and in Turkish. In 2014 she published a Turkish translation of Ilya Kaminsky’s acclaimed book Dancing in Odessa; her own first work in Turkish, an experimental mix of poetry and prose Gece Düşüşü (‘Fall.Night.’) was published in 2012. Her collection of poems Universal Mother was recently published by GloriaSMH Press. She holds a PhD in Fine Arts from Monash University.

More by Elif Sezen on Cordite Poetry Review →

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