CALF’S HEAD AND OX TONGUE
CALF’S HEAD AND OX TONGUE
CALF’S HEAD AND OX TONGUE
CALF’S HEAD AND OX TONGUE


Özge Lena

HEADER PHOTO: Sei donne per l'assassino © Unidis, 1964
poetry, nov 24










Steel grey sky
sprinkled with evening
rain outside the glass
roof as we walk
hand in hand,
then freeze holding
our breaths.
A long tongue cut
from the edge
of the larynx.
Stained red
as a sin. That
is the root
plucked from
the throat,
hung down
by a metal
hook. Down it
is a ragged
pink with a dark
tip, language
less to lick
a female bovine
once alive,
now ready to be
sold next to a calf’s
head covered softly
with pastel white
fur, hooked from
the cartilage
of the nose.
Eyes closed
to the spectator
like it silently
accepts the destiny
of being decapitated
to be exhibited
on a table once,
then on rich walls
of the galleries
for centuries after
Caillebotte imprisoned
their image innocency
on a vertical canvas.
Eyes wide open, we
stare at each other.
You let your blood
scented breath
stroke my face
when I remember
being in prison
is a brush-stroke
close to being
immortal. There
I let your hand
free with a lust
for my freedom.
Later at night I let
your tongue free
as I close my eyes.
I remember I’m a fist
stroke away from
being mortal.












AUTHOR BIO
AUTHOR BIO
AUTHOR BIO
AUTHOR BIO


Özge Lena is a writer & poet based in Istanbul. Her poems have appeared in various countries including the USA, the UK, Canada, Iceland, Serbia, and France. She was nominated both for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. Özge's poetry was shortlisted for the Ralph Angel Poetry Prize and the Oxford Brookes International Poetry Competition in 2021, as well as for The Plough Poetry Prize in 2023, and Black Cat Poetry Press Nature Prize in 2024. Her poem “Here is a New Heart For You” was featured in the storefront of Barnes & Noble bookstore in Dublin, California for the National Poetry Month 2024. // twitter  instagram

























CALF’S HEAD AND OX TONGUE


Özge Lena

HEADER PHOTO: Sei donne per l'assassino © Unidis, 1964
poetry, nov 24





Steel grey sky
sprinkled with evening
rain outside the glass
roof as we walk
hand in hand,
then freeze holding
our breaths.
A long tongue cut
from the edge
of the larynx.
Stained red
as a sin. That
is the root
plucked from
the throat,
hung down
by a metal
hook. Down it
is a ragged
pink with a dark
tip, language
less to lick
a female bovine
once alive,
now ready to be
sold next to a calf’s
head covered softly
with pastel white
fur, hooked from
the cartilage
of the nose.
Eyes closed
to the spectator
like it silently
accepts the destiny
of being decapitated
to be exhibited
on a table once,
then on rich walls
of the galleries
for centuries after
Caillebotte imprisoned
their image innocency
on a vertical canvas.
Eyes wide open, we
stare at each other.
You let your blood
scented breath
stroke my face
when I remember
being in prison
is a brush-stroke
close to being
immortal. There
I let your hand
free with a lust
for my freedom.
Later at night I let
your tongue free
as I close my eyes.
I remember I’m a fist
stroke away from
being mortal.










AUTHOR BIO
AUTHOR BIO
AUTHOR BIO
AUTHOR BIO




Özge Lena is a writer & poet based in Istanbul. Her poems have appeared in various countries including the USA, the UK, Canada, Iceland, Serbia, and France. She was nominated both for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. Özge's poetry was shortlisted for the Ralph Angel Poetry Prize and the Oxford Brookes International Poetry Competition in 2021, as well as for The Plough Poetry Prize in 2023, and Black Cat Poetry Press Nature Prize in 2024. Her poem “Here is a New Heart For You” was featured in the storefront of Barnes & Noble bookstore in Dublin, California for the National Poetry Month 2024. // twitter  instagram
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