Clint Margrave

CALL TO PRAYER

I first heard it

through an open window,

two hours before dawn,

in Istanbul,

with a woman

I hardly knew.

“It’s oppressive,” she said,

“but also beautiful.”

I didn’t argue,

as the loud pronouncements

echoed across

the Bosphorus

and into the room,

our bodies reciting

a different kind of prayer

to a different

kind of god.

Clint Margrave is the author of several books of fiction and poetry, including Lying Bastard, Salute the Wreckage, The Early Death of Men, and most recently, Visitor. His work has appeared in The Threepenny Review, Rattle, The Moth, Ambit, and Los Angeles Review of Books, among others. Full Profile