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White
The Kodak smile of my mother,
the evening drink of my father,
the milk moustache of my baby brother,
the painted walls of the small kitchen,
the sheepskin rug of the living room,
the pressed collar of my uniform,
the broken chalk of the classroom,
the round buttons of my first suit…
And then, the bright surprise on the x-ray,
the large tumors on my spine,
the cotton sheets of the hospital,
and finally, the shroud,
that misty shroud that covers it all
before everything turns black.
Aydin Akgün was born and raised in Izmir, Turkey. He graduated from the Lycée Saint Joseph in Izmir and moved to the United States in 1995. He received a B.A. in both International Relations and French from the University of Nevada, Reno, in 2000, and an M.A. in Creative Writing in both poetry and fiction from Johns Hopkins University in 2009. He lives and works in Washington D.C.