OBSTACLES
As you get to know me I raise another wall.
It’s not that I don’t want you to find out who I am
it’s not that I want to drive you off.
We only have to understand clearly
how many obstacles we can go over
so that we’ll meet again.
We have to find out how far our endurance can last;
Then, don’t forget that perhaps I don’t
put up the obstacles in front of us, but they exist
on me and inside of me like black scars
that change my shape and my color:
the obstacle of myself against myself.
Dancer
The dancer recoiled his body like a spring and inscribed
beautiful lines in the void as if teaching it the meaning
of love. The statue remained motionless, impossible
to recoil in its marble robe. Beggars knew every corner
of the big city, the bricks and mortar, lack of compassion
was already felt from the flight path of the pigeons while
children taught their teachers to skip rope and fairy-tales
they learned on TV: Aesop’s fables retold, reused, recycled,
words re-evaluated. Eyes of the children witnesses of myths
not yet narrated and the dancer recoiled his body like a spring
that inscribed the beautiful line: I love you. Once I was told
to love and finally it came to me that misery was all
I had inherited.
I like those who like their lives and they always give it
away as a gift.
Manolis Aligizakis 