Isabelle Baafi 

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Turkish Delight 

 

i know ………everything ………how blood finds its way……… in the dark ……..why
earth spins ………but never gets dizzy ………which grown-ups are safe ………….to
smile at ………a wink means ……..they dream about you……. a nosebleed means
you told a lie………once you learn a word ………you see it everywhere ………dirty
is everywhere……..……… but only you see it ………a secret is a kind of forgetting
like a taste you have to unlearn ……every time …….like the tickles ……..that you
pretend are bubbles……… the sweetie……… hiding in your pocket. ……..squeeze
it tight if it makes any noise………….. don’t let it tell on you………… remember to
wipe the sugar on your mouth……… before you go to bed………… there are ants
watching by the door ………waiting……… to eat you in your sleep

 

“Turkish Delight” won second place in The London Magazine‘s Poetry Prize 2021/22. Our Short Story Prize 2022 is now OPEN FOR SUBMISSIONS. For the latest on literary prizes and competitions from The London Magazine, sign up to our newsletter.  The above piece also features in our April/May 2022, which is out now. To buy as a single issue, go here.

Isabelle Baafi is a writer, poet, editor and critic. Her debut pamphlet, Ripe (ignitionpress), was a winner of the 2021 Somerset Maugham Award, and was the PS Pamphlet Choice for Spring 2021. Her poetry and prose have been published in The Poetry Review, Magma, Anthropocene, and elsewhere. She is Assistant Editor at Poetry London, a Ledbury Poetry Critic, and an Obsidian Foundation Fellow. She is currently studying Creative Writing at the University of Oxford and writing her debut collection.