Humble Ode They have no voice: things that return to their sleep, their eyes bloodied by time insignificant shipwrecks in the bottom of color, rise now in a multitude of colors. However, I am dead since my birth, already dead, talking to you: monsters that frighten me with death I know you harmless house pets you willingly become crumbs in a myth you don’t have history, and you scold the agony of people and their spontaneous love. Cheap shadows, excrements of wild imagination what do you seek in a causeless world? Indifferent, homeless cowards what do we seek in the horrible deserts of our vision?
FIRST VERSES I like to read your letter over and cry and with my eyes lingering on every line to see you still warm, still remembering when we said we’d be forever one, remembering the days we ran with one another to where nightingales sang seductively the day that I remember when you said I feel an ache here in my heart before the cough arrived to stop your words
…that rumour either—in fact Caitlin thought she would more quickly believe the other—and she was annoyed that Caitlin might be about to ridicule religion as she had ridiculed Padraig. “No, it doesn’t make me laugh,” Caitlin said earnestly. “It happens to be true. I’m joining the Church.” Nora turned and looked in disbelief at Caitlin. Her face showed her astonishment, but as the truth of Caitlin’s words became apparent, Nora broke into a radiant smile, and her eyes lit up with a joy such as Caitlin had never seen before. “Oh Caitlin,” Nora cried, grasping Caitlin by the shoulders and staring into her eyes in rapture. “I can’t believe it has happened. I’ve so much longed and prayed for this day.” She leaned toward Caitlin and hugged her tightly as tears glimmered in her eyes. She straightened up, dropped her hands into the lap of her pink summer dress and asked, “When did you reach this momentous decision?” “It’s something that developed gradually and not without a lot of heart-searching,” Caitlin said. “I think it was Joe-Joe Carney’s illness that started it.” Nora looked serious again. “That incident with young Joe-Joe did Padraig a lot of good in the village. He needed that miracle badly. A lot of people were not at all happy about Padraig coming back among them as their priest and confessor. They remembered his background and they didn’t trust him.” Nora paused and glanced awkwardly at her hands. “You won’t be angry if I say something personal?” “No.” “These latest rumours of an affair between you and him are destroying all the goodwill Padraig earned from Joe-Joe’s recovery. People are saying unkind things about him again and gaining credence. You have to let it be known what’s happening, Caitlin. For Padraig’s sake.” “Another miracle for the Father,” Caitlin said with an edge of sarcasm. “Very well, Nora, you have my permission, as not just my twin sister, but as my closest friend in this village of spite and vindictiveness, to broadcast the truth. Caitlin MacLir has accepted the One True Faith.” “Does Daddy know?” “I haven’t actually told him in so many words,” Caitlin replied, while a guilty shadow flittered across her face. “But he knows.” “Or just suspects.” “No. I believe he knows what’s going on.”
Absence I shall keep your absence alive during the moments I search for something imaginary or real when, in vain, I try to locate your absence in the crevasse of my mind where it takes flesh and blood and begs me never to deny it
Manolis Aligizakis 