Whitewash
As the years passed, by chance, no intention meant, they replaced
the white of the marble with whitewash, certain white,
of course, more blinding, more outside what was needed.
There were many inscriptions and designs on the walls. These
days they whitewash everything: yards, flowerpots, rocks, even
the tree trunks, up the middle; it is an opening, a cleanness, it
smells of health the way the sidewalks and the churches shine
with a new classical simplicity, something that belongs to us.
Each evening, they place on the whitewashed fence wall
a flowerpot with carnations that gaze at the sea. On the front
step of the opposite house, Mrs. Pelagia looks angry, her black
apron is splattered with drops of whitewash as if covered
with small, bloomed daisies.
Manolis Aligizakis 