Mecidiyeköy

Alex Scott

The hills of Mecidiyeköy are forested

With careless brick buildings.

The streets are illogical,

Or they age, organically

The main road meanders

Between the peaks as a river,

Avoiding the steep climbs

Of the tucked-away poor.

When the earthquake comes,

Those forests of brick easily shed;

Each block as a leaf, a snowflake,

Or a cigarette butt.

The peaks of Mecidiyeköy abandon their bricks,

And crumble their concrete paving stones.

The hills now bare,

The valley fills,

As a lake of brick, concrete and cat.

Life goes on in Mecidiyeköy,

Where residents fish the lake,

For their dead.

Their catch is neither quenching nor nourishing, 

Despite its heft.

As they grow hungrier,

The miserable left-behinds bury themselves

At sea, at home with their life

Of brick, concrete and cat.

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Born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, Alex Scott holds a BA in Art History from UCL and an MA in Global Political Economy from Goldsmiths, University of London. His research interests include psychoanalysis, memory, visual culture, and inequality. Between 2020 and 2021, Alex has been living in Mecidiyeköy, Istanbul, in an area called ‘the gutter’.

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