A music
that took centuries
to reach me!
With the echo of your old triumphs I was coming every time
to find you, just to get to you
I reached the Eleusinian Mysteries - to the stone that never smiles
I was searching the ruins to find a sign
an oracle
emerging from the cracks
And right across, at the sea of Salamis
I saw the ancient god again
dancing around
again the bloodied prince
who had a palace in Ecbatana
and came to die in this narrow sea
in this Acheron
The Medes never left
everywhere I look
I see them with a different name different crests
For centuries they are lurking you, Athens
With their evil eye fixed on you
"the eye that destroys", said Melambus
the priest standing high on the altar
And still he screams through the ruins
"Away with you blasphemers..."
Nobody hears him anymore
and those uncivilized skulk in your sleep
planting nightmares
This is how I used to find you and then lose you
I was finding you in moments of sacred pride
And losing you in a hidden traitorous stream of blood
Which one is your "prosopo", Athens?
So many ancient masks lying around you
from tragedies lost
so many wreaths of gods who worshipped you
olive leaf branches that still smell of sweat
and cry of triumph
But on your moonless nights
when darkness howls in the streets
you slide in the bloodied gutter
in the fires in the anger
unfortified
beauty was never a fortress.
And I, the three thousand year old wanderer
I still walk your streets, searching for you
I reached Colonus
and I saw Antigone holding her blind father
I saw your loving light polishing the shadows
I smelled basil and jasmine and mint in your gardens
And later, as the night came
a lonely cry echoed
from your shadowy corners
No... I wont
I shall wait right here, Athens
to see you back on your feet
with your own primordial powers
Upright, menacing
Against your far away lustful lovers
And cry: "Away with you blasphemers..."
For the gods to embrace you once again
Once again to be loved by those who had forgotten!
Published in the calendar of the Hellenic Authors' Society, 2018
With the title: Reading Athens
With purple dye from the Attican matin
Beauty was never a fortress!