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.