Lviv-born Roxelana
(the Ruthenian )
was a foreigner
remembered in Maripol and Mecca.
Red hair, poetry, a kiss,
she was always much more than this.
I wonder what Mihrimah
Roxelana's only daughter
thought -
her mother bought a slave
then a Sultan, free.
She herself must marry at 16.
Mihrimah told by her mother -
outlive your brothers,
never erasing this -
the red hair, the kiss.
