Dear Rümeysa Öztürk
by Marco Katz Montiel / May 25th, 2025
People in the USA
Support your right to speak
Professors also say
This and their students too
Even some in Congress lay
Down the law for you
That should be the way.
You have this right
And I support it.
I wonder if I were to study
At Koç University
Maybe write something pretty
Get down to the gritty
About the Zilan atrocity
Kurdish language anxiety
Food blocked from a city
Would I have this right?
Would you support it?
Your fellow citizens, I think
Would treat me just like you
Professors would, I hope
And their students, at least a few
National Assembly deputies
They would speak up too
As they should do.
Oh, how I want to believe
That all this would be true.
Marco Katz Montiel composes poetry and prose in Spanish, English, and musical notes. He went to college late, and then alienated one university by publishing about bigotry on campus and got kicked to the curb by two others for his union activities. Still, Marco managed to graduate and even publish a book on music and literature with Palgrave. His essays, poems, and stories appear in
Ploughshares,
Jerry Jazz Music,
English Studies in Latin America,
Copihue Poetry,
Camino Real,
WestWard Quarterly,
Lowestoft Chronicle,
Dissident Voice, and in the anthologies
Cartas de desamor y otras adicciones,
There’s No Place, and the
Capital City Press Anthology.
Read other articles by Marco Katz, or
visit Marco Katz's website.
This article was posted on Sunday, May 25th, 2025 at 8:00am and is filed under Poetry.
