White Thoughts
Apollo’s temple at Delphi shivered, fallen
leaves that always reminded me
of the autumnal tree rustle, wishes became
soldiers coming back from the front lines
in coffins laid like spent bullets
gravestones made of marble, abundant
whiteness like my thoughts, palindromic
mind between the sea’s punishment
and death in a chapel where I met
people kneeling for thousands
of years, steel lined against steel
war after another war hunger at noon
and hunger during the night as long as
their coffers were always kept full
there I met their hatred for the first time
the deep savage illusion that incised with
red letters in the wall of revenge
words such as: kill, destroy, decapitate
and I was raised in a Christian home
having the luxury of Christian piety
Manolis Aligizakis 