Two poems

By Özge Lena

Gasoline

A sharp moon blues the Bosphorus.

I stand on the dark edge

of one of Istanbul's seven hills,

and the city lies beneath me

like an electrified phoenix.

This is the abyss between us,

slashing Istanbul in the middle,

a jagged blade splitting

two continents apart.

I remember you saying: I wish

I had wings to fly to you,

and I want to burn

every bridge between us.

Though this is impossible

after the wildfire glazing

the roofs of the city,

the birds are dropping now.

Yet my body is feathered for you.

One day this love will be the ash

from which I will be born,

but tonight it’s my pure gasoline.

Pera 1892

It’s said that every midnight in Taksim,

across the sparkling double doors

of Pera Palace Hotel, an old woman

in a black lace dress sings an aria

about a secret recipe to cure

the rose-gold blood of the city,

once flowing wildly in its ancient

arteries, now muddy. One night

under an amber moon, I find

myself in the hotel’s Orient Bar,

and order a Pera 1892 whiskey

with smoky honey. After the first sip,

a sweet soprano washes all over me,

seagulls scream above the roofs

as if now is the end of Istanbul.

As I hear the aria echoing in my veins,

I know I must catch these notes,

then go down to the Golden Horn,

to pour the song into the wounded sea.

There the water sings a secret back:

the dose that heals is the dose

that kills. I order another whiskey.

 Özge Lena is an internationally published poet who appears in The London Magazine,  Oxford Climate Society Blog, The Madrid Review, Mslexia, and in numerous magazines and anthologies across continents. She recently presented her poetic approach "Catapoetics: Poetry of the Catastrophe" at the International Conference on Poetry Studies, Birkbeck, University of London, following the publication of her catapoetry article in Modron Magazine, UK. Her poetry has received Pushcart Prize, Editor's Choice Award, The Best Spiritual Literature Award, and Best of the Net nominations and was shortlisted for the Oxford Brookes International Poetry Competition, The Plough Poetry Prize, Ralph Angel Poetry Prize, and the Black Cat Poetry Press Nature Prize.