Long Listed for the Griffin Poetry Awards, 2023
6
Father Thomas, however, was distrusting so he had
his well ground coffee each afternoon under
the grapevine
while the bells tolled the evening matins etc etc.
Why should I care for the incomprehensible and
rude world
I keep a piece of glass and know my punishment
as you solve a puzzle so you can stand in front of
the mystery
and the big common charnel house where the bones
of the poor were stored;
all those who suffered silently and anonymously
so God can remember them all together with
one name.
I woke up a bit late, “stupidities it’s the booze”
I said seeing someone sleeping on the sofa
then I remembered “he must be the forest warden” since
once, in other times I was lovable. Of course, there
was always danger that the other could appear, the one
who was arriving in regular hours asking for his share;
when satiated he’d leave taking along some miserable
secret stories while I was still sweeping the blood
in the old school classroom and Mrs. Marcella,
the supervisor “it’s the wrong time for tears”, she said
to me until I started been bored since whatever we live
simply passes and only later it sinks inside of us.
Manolis 