I Allow You to Penetrate My Cold Heart with Your Golden Horn, Istanbul
By Dora Šustić
Either you make love or you make love through art
When love is palpable
Poetry lives in the gaze of two lovers
When love is far
The distant songs make pleasant comfort and lovers use abstractions
To satisfy their lonesome hearts
Istanbul makes my groins wet and skin soft from excess oxygen
Istanbul flushes my waters down
Istanbul does not spare me from risks or doubts
Istanbul is my mirror – when I look at my reflections in the city's windows
I see all my faults
Istanbul is mean sometimes, vulgar and coarse
Istanbul touches me directly, but only when he wants
There are little things I can do to captivate his attention
Istanbul leads me
And I follow into wells of flamboyance
Unleashed invading persuasive force
Istanbul treats me like I'm made of steel
Not knowing that my heart is made of the tiniest seeds of pomegranates
And pomegranates are Istanbul’s very essential pieces
He is as invasive as the Galata tower into the Bosphorus sky
Istanbul has always been a part of me, I visited him in my dreams
Istanbul is patient with me, and he smells like home
Istanbul is the fire of my loins
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Born in Rijeka, Croatia, Dora Šustić (1991) obtained her BA in political studies at the Faculty of Social Sciences in Ljubljana, Slovenia. In 2012, she moved to Prague, where she currently studies screenwriting for a MA degree at the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts (FAMU). Her poems, fiction and non-fiction have been published in several international journals (GUTS Magazine, Hourglass Literary Magazine, Modna, Magazine for Art and Feminism etc.). She wrote and directed several short films and is currently writing her first feature screenplay, Virgins of Pomegranates.
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