Ocean’s March
Where did the young girls’ orchestra go?
to the seashore garden where
at night the sailors drank
amid the trees
and pounded their feet in the air
for a gold coin of moon
in her hair behind the basil plants?
In the nights
only an enormous green reflection of the sea
roams on deserted steep rocks
We pass silently by
the dark rooms
opposite foggy mirrors
that don’t recognize us anymore
and we listen to the footsteps of silence
of the wind and of the sea
on our sleepy touch
It is something of the void’s safety –
a locked door at night
the sketch of a procession of cypresses
in the silver obscurity
of autumn starlight
And when the solitary full moon
rains resignation and forgetfulness
we open the window
and pray
God we thank you
that we are thus alone and sorrowful
so we may look at the sky without any awe
serene and endless like the firmament
forgotten and unrecognizable like the unknown
Manolis Aligizakis 