Original:
The boy builds a tower from matchsticks.
It falls at dawn.
Suggestion:
Make the boy older.
Give him a home.
Let him look at the sky
and lie about the weather.
Original:
She waits on the porch
for something that won’t knock.
Suggestion:
Strike the porch.
Replace with air missile or apartment balcony.
Add a radio tuned
to an obsolete language.
Original:
We buried the radio beside the fence.
Suggestion:
Clarify we.
Was it the family, or
just the one who kept
answering silence with static?
A Turkish writer, Sarp Sozdinler has been published in Electric Literature, Kenyon Review, Masters Review, Trampset, JMWW, and Normal School, among other journals. Their work has been selected or nominated for anthologies including the Pushcart Prize, Best Small Fictions, and Wigleaf Top 50. They are currently working on their first novel in Philadelphia and Amsterdam.