Long-listed for the 2023 Griffin Poetry Awards
Heroism Without a Hero
Therefore let us say goodbye, who knows? Generations will
come to find me in the same position especially at night when
I’m absent
when everything is vague like a woman who aged from
dress to dress or a grey street sign onto which the unsuspecting
children lean,
of course, I’ve also been a naïve idealist with no ticket or
I’ve heard the creaking of a door and its real meaning like a
the rain song that takes the side of the poor
and every so often I lowered the light of the lamp so that I
could gain another adventure like someone they sent away many
a time until he becomes fully bloomed or I fell asleep in front of
the wheels of a car or that I wouldn’t sing only at night when fame
was asleep;
I am completely dishonest like this world that it belongs to you
only when you promise it to someone.
Manolis Aligizakis 