Anatolian Alchemy, by Abra Bertman

Anatolian Alchemy


Now the Queen’s dusk
            purples
           
a city-warm ache
love’s red ink
            the ghost


 fingerprints
            of midnight


when she cried
in fire and outrage
and broke a broad frozen
            quiet


and night
            transformed


empty streets
flowers
            rosy fingers                


songs                                      
secreted in the pensive ark

Abra Bertman

This poem was written after listening to "Anatolian Alchemy" by Arifa.
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Abra Bertman lives in Amsterdam where she teaches English literature at the International School of Amsterdam. Recent poems have appeared or are forthcoming in WomenArts Quarterly Journal, The Citron Review, Rust + Moth, Paper Nautilus, Absinthe Poetry Review The Inflectionist Review and Spry Literary Journal, among others. Abra was nominated for the Best of the Net Award in 2016. Her poem “When the World Comes Home,” a collaboration with jazz pianist Franz Von Chossy, appears in the liner notes of the CD of the same name.