issue 4
// poetry
Anthology of Small Sadnesses
by Özge Lena
Every flower is a sadness now,
take oleanders, for instance, burnt
pink beauties for the bees, both
poison and antidote to the venomous
snake bites. This is the best
definition of poetry I’ve ever heard
since the sky collapsed and we turned
into insects in our snouted gas masks
after the loss of our small sadnesses.
The word anthology comes from the Greek
anthología because anthos means flower
and -logia from legein is to gather,
so it literally is a gathering of flowers,
how gloomy without the blooms.
I want to be included in an anthology
of little flowers written to legein
all people together, to show them
the half-dead stigma of an almost extinct
anthos, once all blossom and fragrance,
now on the sharp brink of the darkness
without spring, silence without bees,
then a dim future without seeds.
about the author // Özge Lena
| Özge Lena (she/her) is an internationally published poet whose work has appeared in The London Magazine, Modron Magazine, The International Times, and in numerous magazines across multiple continents. Her ecological themed poetry earned Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominations and was shortlisted for Oxford Brookes International Poetry Competition, The Plough Poetry Prize, Ralph Angel Poetry Prize, and Black Cat Poetry Press Nature Prize. Özge’s poetry appears in many worldwide anthologies and was showcased at Barnes & Noble for Poetry Month. |
Instagram: @lenaozge
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