Tezer Özlü

‘I’m alone here. I’m listening to Bach. Not that I’m really listening. Here there is only me. Or maybe someone who wants to appear like me. Everything is entangled in my mind. My childhood. The province. Men. Boredom. But my mind is completely empty. I have never been so lonely and so at ease. Completely empty.’

As if a beautiful dead body were a way of taking revenge.

All that is left is the joy of love and desire. My long years of suffering have not destroyed me. They’ve only guided my heart. Taught me how to drink in beauty, to love those near me as I stroke their faces, to understand the sanctity of joined bodies, to understand perfect union. Not all unions are the same. I can see that when I look back.