Monday, February 27, 2006

dagi gegezan adam

When I was just beginning to move beyond chastitiy and virginity I was living near eski sehir,Ephesus as it is called in Christianity, the placewhere the Virgin Mother of God had lived for a while and died. I remember the sun setting and the haunting cries to prayer from the Minaret towers. I remember hoofbeats of horse drawn carriages over the cobblestones. But most of all I remember making like a butterfly flitting from flower to flower. I had a cushy job at NATO in Izmir where I worked opposite a Turkish Major along with a snior NCO who rotated through the office. On the days I didn't work, another American junior NCO worked in my place. This left me time to explore the pavyons at night and early morning whee I befriended many a belly dancer or pavyon girl. On the mornings I worked I would seek out Perihan and her friend, Perihan, a delightful forest nymph who in addition to me ,drew dashing Turkish Colonels to the table who were bemused and annoyed at my presence. When the Officers arrived I would leave as soon as I spotted Alexandra coming through the doo. Alexandra was a statuesque sad eyed Grecian beauty with a stripe of startling gray hair in the the middle of her hairline. One time as I left I heard a snide office remark:"Zamparalik yapti". which Peri later translated for me ,eyes merry with mischief, It means a man who flits from one pretty girl to another, like a butterfly flitting from flower to flower.

This was in the days before I lost my innocence. This time away from country, from family, from the confines of the seminary ,marked a turned in my journey. It is not at all unusual for me to shadow my invisble soul back to that strange land where I began to become.

Country Bubba and the STEPchildren

Trying to catch up with my invisible soul in the ephemeral in between
Bungee jumping over the abyss
wobbling on wimpling wing
grounding myself in the classroom again with a dash of small town taprooms
wondering if I'm on the train again from Pottstown to Philadelphia
practicing bibliotherapy and writing myself out of the darkness
Am I the tree falling in the deserted forest or the sound of a fart in a solitary bed?