Death thinks the Stars at Night are Scabbed over Wounds - Gokçenur C.

Death runs a shop in the Grand Bazaar on Fesçiler Street
Death thinks using foreign words from time to time very cool
Death tries to hide the existence of stripeless zebras from everyone else
Death bets with Time on Fantasy Football
Death whispers the meaning of beauty into a horse's ear
Death is scared to death because he doesn't know his real name
Death is gray-eyed but does not remember he was blue-eyed once
Death talks to the birds, his only friends, whom he doesn't understand
Death likes the little whore in the Jardin des Plantes more than the one in the Tuileries
Death dreams of cashing in his term life and retiring on Social Security
Death learns something, yellow firefly that he is, from everyone he touches
Death does not relish the idea of settling down in the country
Death says to his neighbour, I saw your father, he sends his love
Death keeps a diary, one without dates
Death donates overcoats of forgetfulness to the relatives of the dead
Death can't sleep if he doesn't drink every night, he prefers bourbon to scotch
Death is a creature of habit and brushes his teeth with salt
Death takes out a consumer loan to pay off credit-card debt
Death works at a job he doesn't like
Death collects picture postcards of Corfe Castle
Death mistakes the stars for scabs
Death is angry with god but faithfully recites 3 kulluvallah and 1 fatiha before sleeping
Death underlines his favourite passages
Death gets angriest when people ask "why me?"
Death is no longer ashamed to cry
Death lives among us and is just getting by, just like us

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Gokçenur C. (born 1971) Turkey
Translated by Kurt Heinzelman with Deniz Perin (and the Cunda International Workshop for Translators of Turkish Literature)
Source: Transcript