THE GUIDE
I followed him, the one who knew the forest.
All kinds of forests,
every stone,
each spring.
I was glad I had a guide
and we hurried not to lose the light.
I’ll reach my goal with him, I thought.
After a while, not too late,
although it was late
we started walking around,
I no longer saw anything around me,
my legs went on aimlessly, stumbling,
I fell into pits, ditches, ravines,
everything seemed strange to my guide too,
we kept colliding into each other,
trees and stones stood in our way,
animals, shadows, screams of owls terrified us.
Gripped by fear and despair
I grabbed my guide’s hand
it was cold, strange,
a tree.
Manolis Aligizakis 