August Issue: Poetry Section

1. Letter from the Other Side of Silence — Stephanie L. Harper
2. Because The Deacon Couldn’t Sleep — Dina Friedman
3. One Day At A Time– Kavita Ratna
4. YOU ARE– Mahvash Mohtadullah
5. Gypsy Woman– George Bakola
6. For Angie– Rachel Ikins
7. Rise And Fall– Lynn White
8. Canary’s Plea– Agaigbe Uhembansha
9. The Lost Pages– Sabreen Ahmed
10. VOICES: Three Haikus by Daiypayan Nair
11. Lipstick– Kalpana Singh Chitnis
12. She Rides The Bus– Marianne Tefft
13. There Is A Desire– Trijita Mukherjee
14. My Inner Voice– Shailja Sharma

Gypsy Woman— George Bakola

The Origin of Woman is Hidden
is a parchment that has not been read
the letters make continuous circles
and the core seems to be in the beginning
while it is lost in the unknown end
The best illustration has been made
in the double temple of the Gypsy nature
which is praised and embellished
in the work of an anonymous artist
as the woman poses reconciled
with a chicken about to be sacrificed
There is nothing to indicate agony or death
There is familiarity and plausibility
But not everything is like that
in the background of the picture the shape of the hawk
from the dust of the universe lurks
But what is love for this woman?
It is certainly not piety
Nor the ink on the poet’s paper
nor of course the square stone stamp
on the door of the eternal house
Love is a thread of red
It starts from the dreamy origin of adventure
of birth as a sacrifice on the altar of existence
Who wants an endless tragedy, never-ending
with the stamp of death
on her covered breast?
and yet the defiant symphony of nature
is a fact
the woman will live forever
The woman in the painting
of the unknown artist
the prophecy cannot be read
It escapes like a feline.
and remembers selectively
mostly reassuring things for us
friends, lovers, strangers
in the hazy frame of memory
are of no importance
in the ritual of sacrifice
where everything tastes of blood
the screams and whispers
the sighs and the final redemption
is a ladder next door
from the final descent
That’s how the world is built
the clouds are phrases of play and seduction
the midday sun
sucks all the thirst of desire
the naked body engraves the new dusk
but it is now dawn
the woman at the entrance to the city
in the bazaar with the roosters of the sky
negotiating salvation
of what?
I don’t know…
but I do know that when she enters where she cannot see
there’s just one ray of sunshine
in the vast darkness
maybe it might happen…

George Bakola is a graduate of the Stavrakos Film School in Athens. He has worked in the Theater for 15 years in several positions. His plays have been performed on main stages in Athens, and at festivals in Dublin, London, and Cologne. For three years he has also taught in a private acting school in Athens.
This year he presented his project “Dense Times” at the Berlinale. His novel “Belladonna” is currently being completed and has been proposed to be published in Germany. 

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