Efe Duyan

Call Centre
 
welcome
to relive the day you met your school friends
please press your lucky number
for the times you ran tirelessly around the yard
press random numbers
for the steamed-up windows of truck stops
enter the year of your last family summer vacation
 
everybody has times they're ashamed of
pick a number and keep it to yourself
for the tea and poğaça breakfasts on the campus green
put the receiver down and run to the balcony
if you wish to complain about time rushing helter-skelter
please press and hold zero with all your strength
if you can't quite remember your grandfather
look in the mirror
 
for the dust smell in vintage bookstores
say the third letter of the name
of a laborer who can't read or write
for your neighborhood tailor who was found dead in tattered clothes
please hold
 
for the woman in your sleep
for that unforeseen moment when you touched her neck 
wait for the beep then
press the same number over and over
 
the day after you were ditched
write in your notebook one hundred times
'I will never fall in love again’
 
beep

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Born in 1981 in Istanbul, Efe Duyan is a poet, novelist, and architecture scholar. His poetry has been translated into nearly 30 languages, and he has been invited to numerous international festivals since 2009.  He took part in the Iowa International Writing Program and served as Hurst Professor at St. Louis University. He has given guest lectures at institutions such as Ca’ Foscari, George Washington, Georgia State, and Boston Massachusetts universities.  A committed cultural activist since the early 2000s, he has co-founded several international poetry festivals, edited literary magazines, and translated works by several contemporary poets into Turkish.  His poetry books include İki Kalp Atışı Arasında Sessizlik (Silence Between Two Heartbeats, 2023), Sıkça Sorulan Sorular (Frequently Asked Questions, 2016), Tek Şiirlik Aşklar (One Poem Stands, 2012), and Takas (Swap, 2006).  His novel Başka (2022) explores empathy through speculative fiction. His selected poems have been published in Taiwan (Poetry on the Street, 2021), the USA (The Behavior of Words, 2023), Mexico (The Statue inside the Rock, 2024), and Latvia (My Conscious is a Hungry Fox, 2025).  He currently teaches architecture at RISEBA University in Riga.

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