A week after the Failed Military Coup, you go south to Olympos. You're
camped out with the book and all your keşke. Vine-covered. Ruins fallen
into green river water. A week after the Failed Military Coup, some of your
friends are banned from leaving the country. Word has just come through
that you're exempt. You feel guilty for having worried over an upcoming trip
to Scotland to celebrate your birthday. You meet Tarkin from Diyarbakır,
who sells mussels on the beach, and you feel utterly alone for the first time
in four years. You'll feel guilty for thinking about this, too. A week after
the Failed Military Coup, broad-faced women in headscarves are making
gözleme ("observation"—"do you remember—?") that you eat on the beach.
The Turkish Word of the Day is insan hakları—human rights. Bahane means
excuse. Korkak means coward. He talks of Syrian refugees before he fucks
you. The Failed Military Coup doesn't give you "perspective." You don't
need prayers. A week after the Failed Military Coup, the water is warm. You
think about keşke when you float—suspended in salt and sea—absorbing
differences in light transmission efficiency. Code names. A week after the Failed
Military Coup, Turkish words for "freedom" and "democracy" tattoo the
headlines. You don't know the word for "disappointment"— or
what is                     inverse of—
                                                                                — keşke


Author's Note
Keşke 
(kesh-kay) expresses a wish or longing—it can be roughly translated into English as 'if only'
from the book KEŞKE / Airlie Press
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On Tuesday July 15, 2016, a faction of the Turkish military attempted to overthrow the government. Soldiers invaded the ruling party’s headquarters in Istanbul and fighter jets bombed the Parliament building in Ankara (Turkey’s capital). In the weeks and months following, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğa restructured state institutions in a move many have seen as an attempt to consolidate power and crush opposition.

Jennifer Reimer on "A Week After the Failed Military Coup"
Photo by Tamara Shopsin
"Perfection and Precision in a Poet’s Miniature Worlds"

"In her ninth collection of poems, A Film in Which I Play Everyone (Graywolf, 101 pp., paperback, $17), Mary Jo Bang assumes a directorial stance, 'the view of an angel,' perched a little above the action. Each poem feels like a scene from a life re-enacted on a dollhouse movie set, a scaled-down world."

viaTHE NEW YORK TIMES
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"I found this truism (which seems to readily reproduce itself: 'one sin begets another,' 'one tragedy begets another,' 'one wedding begets another') bubbling up in my brain. If only one vote begat another in that inevitable way, I sighed, thinking of how hard it was to get women’s right to vote established as the law of the land—and of how long it was after that before Black women were able to exercise their 'women’s rights.'"
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