Kristen D. Scott

Waiting for Istanbul

(for Zafer)

waiting for him

is waiting for Istanbul

the force of a Byzantium fresco

first opening

quince

a horse-drawn caravan laden

with lokum

each, tawny, black sea honey

experiencing him is living

Istanbul

without him a history

would be lost

Whispers

He came in black-coal

cordovan

the balm of earth

and rain

on his

hands.

the room was crashing, but time

is noiseless

when one falls -

in love

Night's Philosophy

On an immense night
she walks among
stones
white Camellia
in hair, thinks
of Ibn Sina
Al-Ghazali
and Averroes

her lover guides her
at the elbow-

not
looking for wisdom,

tucks her into
the myrtle
as poems strut
from neighborhood boys,
spring's rhymes on their
tongues

he tastes her there,
first behind the ear,
then nibbles
her collar bone
with one slide
of blouse
from her ivory shoulder

“what did tongue taste”?
she whispers

and her dress falls

into cool fresh

blades
of grass

Utopia

(for Zafer)

rush into me with a thousand Kalahari suns

do not wait with brush of mouth,

or too many syllables

with haste, as a herd of Abyssinian's

racing over opaline sands

with “boom” of thunder; thunder under hips undulations

dark sounds, a thousand flamenco stomps, claps,

Lorca's night-cries – Aye! Andalusia

Come inside me lover, with a thousand strums of guitar,

drums, raging Guadalquivir and quakes of Machu Picchu

Do not HESITATE.

RUSH!

from OPIATE 2014

Voyeur

Peek inside her window

and you will see a lamp

of silver -

10,000 fireflies dancing

inside its center

magnolias draped

around spun gold archways,

porticoes, dormers

lined with springs of myrtle

her visitors-

visages

of Khulna wearing

rubies from Kuala Lumpur

dancing over sunset beams

in her hallways

but

what

you

will

not

see

is her

bedroom

red.

warm.

verdant.

her

naked,

wrapped

in

side

him

from OPIATE 2014

Kristen D. Scott is a nominee of the Pushcart prize in poetry for six works from her 2014 collection OPIATE. She is an award-winning essayist for her work on Federico Garcia Lorca and his books the Divan del Tamarit, Poet of the Deep Song, and essay, "The Duende."

She has published in several Anthologies, newspapers, and ezines, including the San Diego Poetry Annuals, Nomos Review, Perigee, Alesbuyia, and published two poetry collection from Garden Oak Press; LIAISONS (2012) and OPIATE (2014). She has also been translated into Arabic, Turkish, Albanian and Sanskrit.

Scott is currently the Editor-In-Chief, founder, and web designer

of KNOT Magazine, holds a MFA in Creative Writing, MA in English Literature, and progressing with her Ph.D in Global Education and Comparative Literature.

She resides on the Riviera in Türkiye.