Long-listed for the 2023 Griffin Poetry Awards
Interception
He sat at the stairs, so serene, as though there was
not any fame in the world or like his father who, when
he died, he left alone, leaving his austere mask on the table;
then the day went by; time when the souls of drunkards
come back like flies on their empty glasses and the hallway
turns dark, so that the children won’t lie, and, oh sleep,
wherein we die leaving no footprints and only the blind
keep vigil with their hand over the dogs’ eyes groping
on the indifference of the streets.
Manolis Aligizakis 