Poem by Maria Polydouris
FOR KARIOTAKIS
The young men who arrived to the deserted island with you
one night counted themselves and found you missing.
They looked each other in the eyes and no wonder
they shook their heads in sadness.
They recalled many nights that from your loneliness
a sign of fire you would send and they knew
the sad welcome of the abyss lighting the roads
and for this they stayed in their familiar places
they grieved, as if fatefully and sorrowfully
they hanged from the “rock” of danger
and when you said goodbye, you, the forever desperate
they sang a few verses of a traditional dirge.
The young men arrive to the island every year
and they search for the elegy of life in your vacant spot.
They maintain two tears in their eyes for you and
for the new Epoch you have established.
Manolis Aligizakis 