Long Listed for the Griffin Poetry Awards, 2023
6
Day of Revelation, I think, it must be about many
humble things,
killed feathers, lost umbrellas, tables without salt
shakers,
children’s jaundice, the only gold they retained, old
people’s nails, leftover wine in glasses and secretions
of women in holding cells,
and among them, Christ singing with false voice,
nasal, in memory of Mr. Lavrentis the church choir
singer
who never got his five daughters married therefore
he killed them all
and he personally prepared them for their burial.
Then, the crowd dispersed as usually, the lost soldiers
returned
and I saw many of them kissing in secret many kitchen
items
since beauty was our most thoughtful, mournful event,
uncertain promises
which we still believed and blew on our hands in the
side street.
All prisoners in the courtyard were pale and looked
the same
like scattered matches, memories, blood shed, true
story that will never be written
and compassion has a wooden leg and it echoes; an
old woman pulled her teeth one by one cursing her
Fate
“I’d like to pass” one yelled and indeed he meant
a big wreath
which was also part of the conspiracy.
Thus I always felt jealous of the unsuspicious men
and I stole a spoon full of sugar while they slept
and I fed the horses on the road
like the day we buried young Charalambos and upon
returning home
we found the fly buzzing on the closed window pane
and then we cried a lot too.
It was something new, truly, that I hadn’t felt before
“ah I’d like to die with that”
I thought, since no one would ever hear it nor would
it ever end
and the pretrial continued, the bailiff wrote carefully
all the details
and the court clerk pushed the crowd or went out
for a quick coffee
and Vladimir Ilyich pretended to be dead not to meet
my glance
when finally they found the bread in my pocket, now
convinced of my guilt
“I had it for the dogs” I begged of them “not necessarily”
the examiner said
“besides Loucia doesn’t play with me” I said; then they
told me to take off my socks; I felt ashamed since I
never wore socks
and since they had to keep the rules they put an old
pair on me
which, sobbing, I started taking off slowly.
Libros Libertad 