Long Listed for the 2023 Griffin Poetry Awards
https://griffinpoetryprize.com/press/2023-longlist-announcement/
An old woman crosses herself: Lord of all Powers;
of the Western Powers of course
A street sweeper shivers in the cold
his teeth rattle
playing a subterranean angry song
hey, bosses
who yelled?
No one
it blows
Workers in the produce market, laborers using
chainsaws, workers unloading fertilizers,
longshoremen, laundress, quarry workers
the crowd of workers carrying the flour sacks,
eighty kilos each,
old women cleaning the public washrooms
with their eyes swollen and red from the ammonia
the wind howls in side streets, squares
train stations, electric wires, bells,
the upcoming years howl
Two workers talk in a low tone voice
you can’t hear what they say
you only see their lips moving like hands
ready to strike
A shining car stops
two bald-headed men and a woman with a big ass
disembark
the nation demands sacrifices
the banks spread over the wide sidewalks
like prehistoric beasts that digest their prey
Manolis Aligizakis 