Poem of Day: “Sometimes in June” by Carl Boon

Songs of Eretz Poetry Review is pleased to present “Sometimes in June” by Carl Boon.  A native of Ohio, Carl Boon lives in Istanbul, where he directs the English prep school and teaches courses in literature at Yeni Yuzyil University. Recent or forthcoming poems appear in:  Posit, The Adirondack Review, The Tulane Review, Badlands, The Blue Bonnet Review, and other magazines.

Fall in Istambul

Sometimes in June

Carl Boon

Sometimes in June 

a little fall will startle you. 

You'll be walking home from work

behind a girl who's just begun

her bank job, and she twirls 

her hair at the traffic light,

twirls her purse on her thumb.

And in the time it takes

for the boy from Mardin 

selling plums on the corner to call,

leaves will have dotted the street

in yellows and reds. 

Then the smell, like unseen smoke

from a village

that wasn't there yesterday. 

You shiver. You are certain

of the season, but still a lapse,

a square of October 

on the side of the building

instead of a window. A woman

sweeping her balcony of leaves.

A forecast of rain and cool.

Poet’s Notes:  In "Tjanting", Ron Silliman observes that, "Reddest red contain red blue." "Sometimes in June" carries that notion to the realm of time and seasons, in which a trace of a smell in summer seems to contain fall. The poem begins with that idea, and then continues to portray images of fall in Istanbul. 

Editor’s Note:  The poet creates a quiet, magical mood here that draws me into a special moment.