Fires
Ancient fires still
burning inside the temples
outside the porticos
and in the center of the agora
where the eloquent poet once
orated verses before
the paranoid oligarchy
expelled him from the city
paranoia, anxiety, fearful
thought, agony in numbers
images that still come to us
and nothing has really
changed over the eons
except for the invention
of bullets to speed up
the general apathy
Archipelago
Under icy archipelago, krill
dance en masse like a curtain pleat
to the chorus of arctic
current searching for
direction and they mingle
and they grow just enough
to stay trapped inside
the baleen of leviathan
with teary eyes, with big
a heart keeping ahead of the
ocean in undulating breath
and inhospitable depth as
harsh temperature of winter
interlocks with short summer
sunlight in meshing perfection
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1926763033
Manolis Aligizakis 