as your little nightingale
Berkay Bayram
White plum blossoms & nightingale, Hoitsu Sakai
i.
always been a big fan of nightingales
and fascinated by how they serenade their spouses.
they got a secret language to speak to each other’s souls.
glamorous how it resonates, and rhymes, and flows in the air,
just like dancing on a Greek island in the nightfall.
they got this beautiful communication instrument
& it’s the French of the languages... maybe Arabic, or...
it’s the raw, greened tangerine slices of the fruits.
find it very interesting how they speak
they speak differently every time,
they say a brand new thing every time,
they get flirtatious with each...
but isn’t it ironical, they are marvelously heard the same?
they’re beautiful, and they’re not understood.
‘cause they’re not meant to be understood, but to be felt.
ii.
honey... can i call you “honey”?
sometimes and somehow
i find myself thinking
we could be nightingales.
we’re reading out the same fairy tales,
with different tones, with different meanings.
we’re on the same road but with different fates.
unless you would love to cross our paths.
iii.
i happen to nothing but wonder,
do also nightingales feel like they aren’t heard enough?
or i wonder, do they cry out and we think they are singing?
how cruel is it if we’re sugarcoating something that pathetic.
how poor are nightingales?
how poor!
iv.
honey, i’d like to be a nightingale,
and you should be one, too.
we’re not skilled at communicating as a human race.
but we’d nail it if we were nightingales.
i always serenade to you when i’m alone.
i sing for you, i write for you...
because i know i can’t bring back that August night,
when i had that feeling for the very first time.
that feeling
desiring to be set free
as your little nightingale.
Berkay Bayram (he/they) was born in Avsa Island, Turkey. They are a raw poet aspiring to touch people’s feelings with their poetry. They are interested in intersectional feminism and the Queer movement. You can find them on Twitter at @honeyimyourdrug and on Instagram at @berkaybayramx.