1 Poem

Martine van Bijlert

Martine van Bijlert is a poet, novelist and non-fiction writer, who grew up in pre-revolutionary Iran and now lives in the Netherlands. In between, she worked as an aid worker, diplomat and researcher, mostly in Afghanistan—a country she still closely follows from afar. She is co-founder of the Afghanistan Analysts Network, a Kabul-based think tank. 

Her poetry has started to appear in places like Kerning, The Dewdrop, Hole in the Head Review, Otis Nebula, Pangyrus, Consequence Forum, Non Binary Review, Barrow Street, Oyster River Pages and Tiny Spoon. 

Website: www.martinevanbijlert.com 

Twitter and Instagram: @mvbijlert

a furnace is a dangerous place

did you see the pictures

as a child too

three young men

beautiful and chaste

hair untouched

clothes unruffled

I was maybe always

a little in love with them

lanky and principled

not famous enough to be flawed

allowed to return to the shadows

after proving the king wrong

like silent friends

you know

I used to walk the country

where this is supposed to have happened

now I wonder why

the story needed them to be three

I guess I wanted to join them

to be one of the boys

the fourth softboy to their

perfect three