Ecem Yucel
Fresco #1
Dilber dudağı, lady lips —
a pastry shaped like mouth
with walnuts, like teeth,
peeking in-between. In his mind,
the inventor had the thick,
voluptuous lips of a beautiful woman
named Dilber, and devoured it,
this edible voodoo doll of a mouth,
as if taking revenge from the real flesh
he’d never licked, yet
madly desired to bite and bleed.
Fresco #2
Hanım göbeği, lady’s navel —
deep-fried balls of pastry
soaked in syrup, each with
a small concave in the middle.
The name was a joke among
the mischievous palace cooks,
who fantasized about the honeyed,
cloying taste of a woman’s
belly button when their tongues
were dipped deep in the dimples.
Fresco #3
Şekerpare, a morsel of sugar —
soft pastry doused in thick,
sugary, lemon-flavoured sherbet,
resembling breasts, with dark roasted,
pistachio nipples. All five fingers,
men palmed and gobbled them up
like oysters, rolling the pistachios
on their tongues, biting into
their savory crunch to balance
the sweet dizziness of the syrup
now flowing through their veins,
thickening their blood, spiking
the bad cholesterol levels.
Fresco #4
Tulumba (Kerhane Tatlısı), pump (or brothel dessert) —
deep fried batter, coated in thick,
saccharine syrup, resembling churros.
Rumored to stimulate one’s sexual energy,
it was sold to the men, tired of labor,
waiting in queue outside of brothels,
many of whom left glucose-filled, sticky
saliva marks on different parts of the bodies
of different harlots in the aftermath,
making the women,
for later customers,
much sweeter on the palate.
Ecem Yucel (she/her) is a Turkish-Canadian poet, writer, translator, and interpreter. She holds an MA in World Literatures and Cultures from the University of Ottawa and works as a cultural interpreter. Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in The Evergreen Review, Salamander Magazine, HAD, Phoebe Journal, The Hooghly Review, Maudlin House, Overheard, Stanchion, Autofocus, Gone Lawn, and more. Find her at www.ecemyucel.com or BlueSky: @theecemyucel.bsky.social, X/Twitter: @TheEcemYucel, and Instagram: @the.ecem.yucel.
Featured photo: Tulumba by Alonso Brosmann (Good Fon)
