For Evren, A Groom Today by Carl Boon
You’ll feel it soon enough:
a strange woman on the street
who seems to know you in a glance.
Perhaps you already have.
She’s standing there at the Friends
Cafe where you walk in Istanbul.
April will have passed into winter
so quickly. You’ll have forgotten
summer and fall’s red spectacle.
You’ll be carrying a plastic bag
with bread, a newspaper, and she’ll
tantalize and haunt you, and suddenly
seize you. It will happen in an instant.
There will be no pause to ponder why.
Around you the birds will be still.
Beneath your jacket you will sense
this catastrophic pull, this sweet
madness, and by the time you get home
it will be too late. The life you held
will be in her hands. The marriage
you’ve made she’ll unmake, brick
by brick, all the way down
to the dinner plates, the silverware,
the candy dishes still in their boxes.
Art by Agata Nowicka Recommended listening: Cecilia - Simon & Garfunkel Links of the Day: A case for fools
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