The Lesson by Ayşe Tekşen

I hated the lesson more than

I hated the teacher who preached,

revealing his yellow teeth,

and told the whole class that

we were revolving around the sun.

Why? It was a popular question

the teachers loved to ask.

I wanted to ask him the same then:

Why teacher, tell me, why do we

revolve around the sun, while he,

sun of a beach, sits as if he is

the lord of fire, all crimson,

orange, yellow, and white,

heating, simmering, burning,

and doing nothing?

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Ayse Tekşen lives in Ankara, Turkey. Her short stories and poems have been included in Gravel, After the Pause, The Write Launch, Uut Poetry, The Fiction Pool, What Rough Beast, Scarlet Leaf Review, Seshat Literary Magazine, Neologism Poetry Journal, Anapest, and Red Weather. Her work has also appeared or is forthcoming in Constellations, Jaffat El Aqlam, The Paragon Journal, Ohio Edit, the Same, and Willow Literary Magazine.