Your Absence Poem by Lokman Kaya

​The address of the dead is known
You touch their earth, you speak
You make your voice heard to them.
'Why did you come, what is your business here'
They don't say to you, they listen to you
But where is the one who went
You cannot know what they do
You cannot find them in both worlds
You cannot breathe any air other than their absence
​Salt has lost its taste, sugar its name, water its purity
Nights are attached to days, all walls are the same
It doesn't hide its cold face, it is a wall just like its name
It doesn't mind whatever I say, it resisted how many of my screams
​Since you went from here
The earth is not even life for the grass
Let it never search for flowers
The heart of that daisy of yours is your eyes
​What you told for years is carrying over to centuries
The letters of your words are millions in number
Pouring over me from the sky
Each one a lead bullet
In the crowded city, I am the only target
But no one is aware
That I wander wounded in blood
​Your absence, you know
Your mind-boggling, trouble absence, you know
Your absence that turns everything upside down, you know
​The sun has abandoned the world
The moon went after it
The stars fell to the ground
The rain is offended by the earth
The faces of babies have faded
New brides became widows
The tonsils of the scream have been taken
The mountains lost their majesty
Huge mountains became the clowns of the mounds
Whatever is happening, I swear it's because of your absence
​Your mind-boggling, trouble absence, you know
Your absence that turns everything upside down, you know
​Hospitals whose limits are full
Inadequate sentences
Lokman's poems are darkening the soul
Two-meter tall dwarfs
Everything is nonsense, everything is meaningless
It comes as mind-boggling
Full to the brim asylums
Looking for Mazhar Osman
Tarred poor minds
​All hearts are locked to love, love virus is on attack
The epidemic has passed the city, spreading to the world
Soldiers are destroying the lovers
As the numbers of contagious lovers increase
The universe will vanish, loves for sale
Devren (transfer) from the owner, but there are no buyers
Lessons are given on how not to fall in love
Every corner, every step is in the heart
​Everything is evil, everything is nonsense, meaningless, irrational
Whatever is happening, I swear it's because of your absence
​Your absence, you know
Your absence that makes the cure incurable
Your absence is hunger, your absence is cold
The tear of the barefoot orphan is your absence
​The slap dealt to the motherless
The love withheld from the fatherless
The one I saved for the Shahada
Even the last breath, the low thief who stole it is your absence
The virus that makes virgin hearts widows is your absence
The lens that fits my world into a square meter is your absence
​The one that spoils my sense of taste
The one that makes the world an apocalypse in my eyes
Your absence, you know
To stay as a mistress with death while living
Not being able to die, crawling, being wasted
Being spent is your absence
At no time your leaving
This heart cannot digest
Until I marry my mistress (death)
Your absence will not leave me
​Your absence is nothingness, your absence is hunger
The wingless bird is your absence
The scream of my love that you insidiously slaughtered is your absence
​Just one step before crossing the Sirat Bridge
Falling from the cliff is your absence
​Your absence is a void, your absence is unrest
The one that chokes a morsel of bread in my throat
Poison, misery, mind-destroying trouble is your absence
Your absence, you know
​Lokman Kaya 19.10.2005 ANKARA