Undivided

With his airy smile still reflecting
bygone glorious days

he stood amid the gravestones

and statuettes resembling
our dead comrades lost in battle

or in a hutment drenched in blood.

Suddenly his eyes dived deep into mine
he let a sigh go as silently as
the statuettes and whispered: only
this graceful smile will stay forever
remember this at the hour of reckoning

only this graceful smile remains
all the rest perish, vanish
like the fragrance of hyacinths
in the wind’s blow
like the love you make to a woman
like the sand through a sieve
or the fingers of your hand

yet this moment will last forever
because only the now can’t be divided

for everything else, they have found
pieces, fractions, and elements.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BKHW4B4S

Talking to my Shadow

What is this shadow outside the window

the glance of time, the exiled messenger

vanishes in the flash of a lightning bolt

and unexpectedly returns

a threat or a promise

filled with old melodies, torn-off calendar pages

strange paths, unfamiliar destinations

over which echo of flowing cataracts

distancing footsteps of migratory gods

it stares through me beyond the moon

I won’t stay for too long, it says to me,

neither you

we are guards of a secret

that goes by daily

we have too much to learn even while on the road.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DPCRLJC6

T.S. Eliot – Οι κούφιοι άνθρωποι