Eighteenth Hour
I halt my straddle before yellow
emotion opposite a well-preserved
church echoing with blessings
and phony wishes for everlasting peace
and lifting the veil of opulent
kisses blowing like dynamite
Eros is transformed to stigma
degraded by arrogance of
critics stalled in error time
literate fanatics the dream bled to
phlegmatic negligence
puffy cloud none looks at
below masses graced by folly
endless self-love in spite of solid advice
from erudite Death who
has seen the evidence
yet the belligerent mind
guides its faithful to the steps
of immortality as all others
just die pointless deaths
observing an opera bufa
as every breath drawn hangs
like a half-open eyelid observing benevolent acts
exulting bigotry promoting
the sin-turned-blessing scaffold dropping
noosed heretics through the hole
like monotonous drips
from the gutter after rain
every virulent thought done up
to splendorous diction
and meditating olive branches
ask ‘why?’ as the percuss of breaking spines
spits emphatically:
who cares?
Manolis Aligizakis 