13 “Demir, I found her! I’ve been looking for her in all the wrong places all these years. She is back in Halfeti, working as a –” “As a what? Where?” Demir asked with obvious impatience. Aker stopped himself from saying anything further. “Well, my dear Dr. Polat,” he continued with a fake yawn, “I’ll call you first thing in the morning. When we are both wide awake. I’ve been driving all day long, and you certainly sound...

10 “Demir, this hurts too much. Let me die. Please.” “Melek, my sweetheart, we are almost there. I’m so sorry you are hurting so much. But Aker will take excellent care of you. We can’t possibly find more capable hands in hiding. And I’ll be by your side the whole time.” Melek kept begging him to let her die. When they reached Aker’s clinic, a makeshift operating table was ready. Immediately, Melek was put under. A week l...

7 Her brother – together with all their male cousins, had cornered them just when they were leaving the language school that Wednesday. Blending in with friendly gestures, they led them away from the exiting crowd. On the curbside of the opposite street, a large van with a company logo awaited. Their ride ended in an abandoned farmhouse at the town’s outskirts. Butrus kept repeating: “Don’t hurt her! Take it up with me! C...

4 “Can you believe, we have known each other four months already?” Butrus spoke in full excitement but looked tired. “Did you have enough sleep last night?” Huban didn’t hide her concern. His classes at the university ended at noon. In the early afternoon, he studied for the next day. Then came his language hours. In the last two months, he had acquired two night jobs – one in the university library and one in the town’s...

1 “Oh, dear God. My girl. My poor girl. Who did this to you? What they did to you! Oh, God. No! No!” “Mom, help me...” The ambulance sped through the many rural areas to Şanlıurfa hospital. Where Huban was born. The medics raced her stretcher through the emergency entrance, while a loud speaker summoned doctors to the OP. Her mother’s bewildering plea was the only sound in the crowded lobby: “Please. Please. No window, no...

the homeland enters the main veinher incomparable scent penetrates each body cellone stunning aroma after anotherthirsting for her, beyond any measurein hunger pangscaptive in intense longingetched in permanence into memorymy childhood in many of her spacescarefree years of my youththe magic of my early adulthoodunrivaled,in the flesh and the blood,distant memories,reappearing as experiencesone corner of the homelanddisti...

"My loneliness is filled with people," Kafka states. Loneliness once:Night times - the worst, amid winter darknessdays end in haste, day-ends prolong like childhood's gummy sweetsin the hands of street vendors, unkempt, unwashedlips not even touching the mom-water cup,yet, devouring in full trust those stretchy rainbow-colored sugar treatsloneliness now:Filled with sounds of indecipherable joytwo person bed in the morning...

the day fades anewhigh moments and banalities recedeevening hours set inthat familiar sharp pain againsadness rulessimple and intense:I adore you,miss you,want youyet you distance,stay away,detach,evadecommitment?I...merely covet your breathnext to mineperhaps, just perhaps,a little while longer.

Loved? No doubtCared for? No doubtRespected? No doubtA son's finances, hooked to a lifetime supportThe daughter somehow must breathe without!

Hours of road monotonythe GPS, a self-imposed dictatorshiptired, bored, no more beauty in the snow...thena private gateway;a much anticipated spectacle:The Inn.A compelling magnificence.No need for a color, a shade, or hue;a winter embrace of splendor;the smolder of her fireplace:I feel home.Spacious beyond the eye's capacity,not at all an inn of limits;high-risers' luxury at hand;many may deem impersonal,out of futile ha...

The Wife his love, never fallen into herevident to both for longher non-denial from the onsethurtful honestythen, no longeronly at the endno wasted effort on his partall had to go along his wayyet, she, resolutereared in full idiocyof accommodating - except for the selfbrought up in static obediencegratifying - except for the selfcatering to him incessantlycatering to his householdcatering to his professioncatering tirele...

Don't be burning, oh heart;don't be yearningfor those who can't afford a love like you,mistake life for this and that routine,hold on to joys so dull and mundane.You are in misery,burnt from the core.They can't possibly cease,these fireball tears.And yet, one hopeful day,also this hurt will fade away.Don't be dismaying, oh heart:You will not always be ablaze.You took your other half as love,devoted to it your innermost.Ho...

no womb to take your tears to the hurt, above you – you, only a petite full-grown from a premature fetal fist – forced to let it lurk inside the three hundred ninety grams of it all as well as the mere seven pounds not once not twice nor the nth time but a content and eternal guest in you