Gelincikler
Meral’e
Ne yaşlı erkeklerin kırışık yumuşak elleri –
kâğıt gibi kolay yırtılan – ne de park saksılarının buruşuk çiçekleri.
Laleler gibi dimdik, kendinden emindir Kırmızı Türk Gelincikleri
alabildiğine parlak, kırmızı dört yaprak,
bir de gözlerine çekili birer kara sürmedir tüm istekleri.Çocuklar gibi gülüyoruz koşarken
boyu dizimizi aşan tarlalar dolusu gelincikleri.
Sokaklarını dolduruyorlar adanızın
saçılıyorlar dereler boyu, geçip altından çitlerin
sanki bir zamanlar yollara taşan seller gibi.Gelincik avcısıyız biz, gelincik toplarız.
Koşup başka kadınları geçer,
yolun sonuna varırız, inşaatların ardına
en güzel tarlayı bulmak için yarışırız.
Ben toplayıp demetlerken, lafa tutarsın onları arkada.Dört yaprağını yolarız. Polen dolu kökler
şaşkın, çıplak, arılar nasıl gelecek diye bekler.
Bebeğimizin cildini getirir akla
kadife yapraklar parmaklarımızın arasında,
tüy gibi yükle dolana kadar o küçük uçuk yeşil araba
ardı ardına doldurur sepetleri gelincikler.Eve varınca yıkarız doldurup küvetlere.
küçük böcekler fırlar içlerinden,
otlar, gelincik tohumları, yeter belki de
uyutmaya bir aslanı, uçan bir maymunu eğlendirmeye
gökkuşağının ardındaki merdivenlerde.Üst üste durularız, yakarken sırtımızı bahar güneşi,
çiçekler kırışır, buruşturur sular serinleyen ellerimizi.
İpek gömlekleri yıkamaya benzer. Mutfaktaki tencereden
tatlı bir buhar yükselir. Hoş bahar kokuları tüttüren
senin o eşsiz tarifin benimle mezara gidecektir.Reçel hazır olduğunda koyu gölgeler çöker üstüne soğudukça
hazırım artık gelincik lokumu dolu çantamla,
gelincik şurubumla hüzünlü bir ülkeye yolculuğa
gelincikler yalnızca genç ölen adamlar,
kocasız kalmış yalnız kadınlar
anlamına gelir o topraklarda.Şimdi – diyorsun ki bana – gelincikleri görünce:
bahardaki dostluğu düşün, yabani güzelliği, onun meyvelerini;
“gelincik”, genç bir gelinlik kızdır hanımböceği güzelliğinde,
mutluluktan ışıldar kara gözleri, kadife gibi dokunur günışığı,
ipek gibi, ve bir reçel tadı dilinde.
Poppy picking
for Meral
Not the soft wrinkled skin of old men –
papery, easily torn – or the crumpled blooms in our town plots.
Upright as tulips, Turkish Red Poppies are firm and sure
they need just four petals, bright scarlet,
red as red can get, each with its eye black khol.We are laughing like children
racing through fields-full, higher than our knees.
They crowd the narrow roads of your island
spilling across runnels, under fences
as if they were once water, spreading in a flood.We are poppy hunters, poppy-picking.
We run ahead of the other women,
driving to lane’s end, friends’ building sites
competing for the best field to harvest.
You hold them hostage with talk, while I grab and gather.We pluck the four petals. Pollen-loaded stems are
shocked, naked, worrying how to attract bees.
Velvet along our fingers we recall our babys’ skin,
filling bucket after basket, harvesting ‘til your small pale-green
car is loaded with the lightness of their feather-weight.At the house we wash them outside in basins.
Small creatures emerge to be purged,
bits of grass, poppy seeds, perhaps enough
to charm a winged monkey, put a lion to sleep
on their trudge behind the rainbow.Over and over we rinse them, spring heat on our backs,
flowers ruffling and crinkling in our cool hands.
It’s like washing silk shirts. The pot in the kitchen is
boiling its sugary clouds. Your secret ingredient I am to
take with me to the grave is wafting old morocco in.When the jam is ready it cools into dark-claret shades
ready to sit in my bags with poppy lokum, red-poppy syrup
travelling back to a country where red poppies only ever meant
grief over fields full of bodies of young men,
a generation of women left unmarried, lonely.Now – you say to me – when you see red poppies you will think of this:
friendship in spring, wild beauty and its fruit;
‘gelincik’, that means lovely young brides in their ladybird beauty,
black eyes shining with happiness, the touch of velvet, sunshine,
wet silk, and sweetness of jam on the tongue.
- 115: SPACE
with A Sometimes
114: NO THEME 13
with J Toledo & C Tse
113: INVISIBLE WALLS
with A Walker & D Disney
112: TREAT
with T Dearborn
111: BABY
with S Deo & L Ferney
110: POP!
with Z Frost & B Jessen
109: NO THEME 12
with C Maling & N Rhook
108: DEDICATION
with L Patterson & L Garcia-Dolnik
107: LIMINAL
with B Li
106: OPEN
with C Lowe & J Langdon
105: NO THEME 11
with E Grills & E Stewart
104: KIN
with E Shiosaki
103: AMBLE
with E Gomez and S Gory
102: GAME
with R Green and J Maxwell
101: NO THEME 10
with J Kinsella and J Leanne
100: BROWNFACE
with W S Dunn
99: SINGAPORE
with J Ip and A Pang
97 & 98: PROPAGANDA
with M Breeze and S Groth
96: NO THEME IX
with M Gill and J Thayil
95: EARTH
with M Takolander
94: BAYT
with Z Hashem Beck
93: PEACH
with L Van, G Mouratidis, L Toong
92: NO THEME VIII
with C Gaskin
91: MONSTER
with N Curnow
90: AFRICAN DIASPORA
with S Umar
89: DOMESTIC
with N Harkin
88: TRANSQUEER
with S Barnes and Q Eades
87: DIFFICULT
with O Schwartz & H Isemonger
86: NO THEME VII
with L Gorton
85: PHILIPPINES
with Mookie L and S Lua
84: SUBURBIA
with L Brown and N O'Reilly
83: MATHEMATICS
with F Hile
82: LAND
with J Stuart and J Gibian
81: NEW CARIBBEAN
with V Lucien
80: NO THEME VI
with J Beveridge
57.1: EKPHRASTIC
with C Atherton and P Hetherington
57: CONFESSION
with K Glastonbury
56: EXPLODE
with D Disney
55.1: DALIT / INDIGENOUS
with M Chakraborty and K MacCarter
55: FUTURE MACHINES
with Bella Li
54: NO THEME V
with F Wright and O Sakr
53.0: THE END
with P Brown
52.0: TOIL
with C Jenkins
51.1: UMAMI
with L Davies and Lifted Brow
51.0: TRANSTASMAN
with B Cassidy
50.0: NO THEME IV
with J Tranter
49.1: A BRITISH / IRISH
with M Hall and S Seita
49.0: OBSOLETE
with T Ryan
48.1: CANADA
with K MacCarter and S Rhodes
48.0: CONSTRAINT
with C Wakeling
47.0: COLLABORATION
with L Armand and H Lambert
46.1: MELBOURNE
with M Farrell
46.0: NO THEME III
with F Plunkett
45.0: SILENCE
with J Owen
44.0: GONDWANALAND
with D Motion
43.1: PUMPKIN
with K MacCarter
43.0: MASQUE
with A Vickery
42.0: NO THEME II
with G Ryan
41.1: RATBAGGERY
with D Hose
41.0: TRANSPACIFIC
with J Rowe and M Nardone
40.1: INDONESIA
with K MacCarter
40.0: INTERLOCUTOR
with L Hart
39.1: GIBBERBIRD
with S Gory
39.0: JACKPOT!
with S Wagan Watson
38.0: SYDNEY
with A Lorange
37.1: NEBRASKA
with S Whalen
37.0: NO THEME!
with A Wearne
36.0: ELECTRONICA
with J Jones