Our Sun
This sun was mine and yours: we shared it
who suffers behind the golden silk, who dies?
One woman beating her dry breasts cried
‘Cowards
took my children and tore them to pieces
you killed them
gazing with a strange look at the fireflies at dusk
absentminded in a blind contemplation.’
The blood dried up on the hand made green
by a tree
a worrier was asleep clutching the spear that
cast some light to his side.
The sun was ours, we saw nothing behind the gold
embroidery
later on the messengers came, out of breath and dirty
mumbling unintelligent words
twenty days and nights on the barren earth with only thorns
twenty days and nights feeling the horses’ bellies
bleeding
and not a moment’s break to drink the rain water.
You said let them rest first and then they can speak,
the light dazzled you
They died saying ‘we have no time’ touching
some sunrays
you’d forgotten that none rests.
One woman cried out ‘Cowards’ like a dog in the night
sometime ago she’d have been beautiful like you
with wet mouth, alive veins under her skin
with love.
This sun was ours; you kept the whole of it
you didn’t want to follow me
and then I learned of these things behind the gold
and the silk
we have no time. The messengers spoke the truth.
Manolis Aligizakis 