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Self-Portrait

Poet: Özge Lena

it was a big city but I was small

and shivering to meet him

 

before a huge bookstore

under the gleaming raindrops

 

of a vermillion evening

promising new things a new life

 

with him who would come

to me who would hold

 

my life for me not to fall

apart who would love me more

 

than I could love myself who

is there staring at me

 

with a baby in her arms look

at her eyes craving to swallow

 

me and my life and my being

alone with the books in my arms

 

my possibility of being anyone

at any time then I understood

 

that I would never forget

her even when I grew up

 

to a life of suffering with him

even when I have a baby

 

in my arms especially

when I saw a girl standing

 

by a bookshop looking at me

with a deep dread in her eyes

 

under the hopeless rain

of my shattered life  

Özge Lena is a poet/writer based in Istanbul and an English language teacher. She has a published novella titledOtopsi(The Autopsy). Her poems have appeared inInk Sweat & Tears, Green Ink Poetry, Fragmented Voices, Harana Poetry,and elsewhere. Her poetry's shortlisted for the Ralph Angel Poetry Prize 2021, judged by Mary Ruefle. Her poemSummerlepsyis shortlisted by Will Harris for The Oxford Brookes International Poetry Competition 2021.

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