Poem by Sissy Doutsiou
LEVIATHAN
The black sea
thick unexplored bottom
big waves, exulted sea froth
the only ones who survived Leviathan
dark
fearful
powerful
the peace of its seafloor
passage to Hades
you won’t need to bribe with bronze coins
trembling before the dark endlessness is enough
your relatives won’t need to feed death
under your tongue: nothing
Acheron is sorry
Cocytus wails
Phlegethon explodes
Lethe forgets
Styx hates
lives tied
to various places
you haven’t imagined
pirates
construction sites
sailors
breaths of men chained on gigantic anchors
they put aside skates and red fishes
to report a full cargo to the port authorities
cosmetics and accessories for women
last breaths of mammals
with their eyes pulled by the metal net
plastic colorful hands
disembowel schools of fish
they just have time for a cigarette
the sea is angry
tyrant and at the same time
savior of the earth
industry sounds and
the cries of Atlantic
buzzing
and the rough unfamiliar
Leviathan
details give you vertigo
the magenta’s light is low
about thirty five per cent
each instrument in its place
for its hanging
for its underwater killing
chains, hooks, pipes.
A load of blood
the blood of sea weed
dried exotic conches
wrinkled star fishes that shed tears
and dried up corals —
wrinkled memories of a sea floor
plastic blue gloves
remind you the color of dawn
stow beauty in orange plastic pails
souvenir from Portugal, mom,
buy me that sea horse,
it’s so nice
Dead.
Men like machines
with no emotions
frozen eyes
cold
the wind that makes you
think only of hunger
wine
cigarettes
a chubby cunt to fuck
repeated movements
repetition kills tenderness
repetition
cynic words
and survival.
A trap door that spits blood
and pieces of rotten sea meat
twenty four degrees and fifteen minutes north latitude
seventy six degrees west longitude
alone
in the ocean.
Parts of the ship
rectangular shapes
square and multi-angular
with schisms
the heavy and salty sea water
goes through
fills and
empties
rocks
when the rusted shapes fill
with men near death
the sea
washes them clean
freshens them
until they die of asphyxiation
a load made of corpses
their fate was common
to stop
running inconceivably in the sea floor
Manolis 