Üç beyaz köpek
bite me up in the hills.
The nurse is a Kurdish giant.
She says that it’s Fear that kills.

So I keep my wobbly composure.
We go to Empire of Ants,
we go to Diyarbakırspor
and Feyyaz makes me some pants.

Now that I’m safe and sound,
I sometimes think that I died.
Dogs shriek when I touch them.
Death is the vampire inside.

*****

John Gallas wrote in June: “Safe (just) back from my 10-day annual Wales Stiwdio Maelor hideaway adventure: much biking and tramping, but did have to get mopped up (along with 7 others) descending Cader Idris on the hottest May day ever recorded in Wales, by Mountain Rescue. Well, I had got to the top, then half way down … flop. 

Evenings – no wifi – very writing-productive. I sorted ’10X10′ by chucking out ‘Lawrence of Australia’ (a 10 formal-poem tale) – sadly, it just didn’t work and I couldn’t torture it into acceptable shape – and writing replacement 10 ‘Retractions of Death’ – my 10 most near-fatal life moments – a merry bunch, as of course I survived ’em all! One attached for you…”

(“Üç beyaz köpek” is Turkish for “three white dogs”; “Diyarbakırspor” is the football club in Diyarbakır. – RHL)

John Gallas, Aotearoa/NZ poet, published mostly by Carcanet. Saxonship Poet (see www.saxonship.org), Fellow of the English Association, St Magnus Festival Orkney Poet, librettist, translator and biker. 2025 Midlands Writing Prize winner. Presently living in Markfield, Leicestershire. Website is www.johngallaspoetry.co.uk which has a featured Poem of the Month, complete book list, links and news.  

Illustration: “Rabies in Diyarbakır 2015” as interpreted for RHL by GPT-5.6 Sol Light