The soot in the brain.
The needle in the heart.
The sand in the mouth.
Tangled veins.
Tingling blood.
Lost things.
Forgotten memories.
Isn’t this love?

He told me so.
He told me that all were normal.
It was normal to lose or forget things
such as glasses, books and the cat.
He told me that my eyes were fine,
books weren’t my favourite,
and I didn’t have a cat at all.
Isn’t this lovely?

To have someone who knows you better than you,
who ties you down to the earth,
who reminds that you make things up
as you always did –
your imagination floats up and up.
Like the light of a gas lamp.

I thought so.
I thought of all these at
the night when I was cleaning
the fur of an unexisting cat.

Özge Lena is an Istanbul based writer/poet and an English language teacher. Lena has a published book titled Otopsi (The Autopsy) and their writing appeared in some of the printed and online literary magazines in Turkey. Their poems will soon be out in Seiren Quarterly and All Female Menu.