SHAPE OF ABSENCE IV
Very often, during the afternoon when everyone has left
the house, mothers let their aprons on the back of a chair
and open the closet of the dead child
as if to uncover their secret patience
as if to open the back door of silence that leads
to a sorrowful garden.
They unhang small dresses from the hangers
light-blue, rosy, orange colour, made
of the thoughtful hours of twilight. They dust them
and caress them absentmindedly and suddenly
they smile, their girls must have grown tall by now and
they should buy them new dresses. The brush
is left on the floor like a small craft that
travels in a small seashore with its lights turned off.
Manolis 