POEMS/ Santorini, 1961
Santorini, 1961
Our first child curled inside me.
The kettle boiled dry
while we loved and listened to the wind’s heat
caressing the flat white roof.
Once we heard the roar of motorcycles
snarling in the alley at three a.m.
as if the riders wanted passage through our room
and island roosters crowed all night
loud in the neighbor’s garden.
We held each other and slept
until the sun rose straight above
touching the silent rim of the volcano’s crater.
When we were hungry we ate octopus,
bread and goat cheese in a small taverna,
drank retsina and tiny cups of thick black coffee.
Weary donkeys burdened with loads
dwarfing their worn and dusty backs
struggled up the sun-scorched path below us,
where lizards crept over torch- hot rocks at noon,
seeking shade in the cool, wet sand.
Beyond the ancient crusting wall
where blood red bougainvillea clung,
the azure sea still sung
of the great fleet that sailed to Troy,
of years of longing and of pain.
We were young then --
and thought the song
of the ageless sea
was not for us.
All Roads Go Where They Will, 2010
Our first child curled inside me.
The kettle boiled dry
while we loved and listened to the wind’s heat
caressing the flat white roof.
Once we heard the roar of motorcycles
snarling in the alley at three a.m.
as if the riders wanted passage through our room
and island roosters crowed all night
loud in the neighbor’s garden.
We held each other and slept
until the sun rose straight above
touching the silent rim of the volcano’s crater.
When we were hungry we ate octopus,
bread and goat cheese in a small taverna,
drank retsina and tiny cups of thick black coffee.
Weary donkeys burdened with loads
dwarfing their worn and dusty backs
struggled up the sun-scorched path below us,
where lizards crept over torch- hot rocks at noon,
seeking shade in the cool, wet sand.
Beyond the ancient crusting wall
where blood red bougainvillea clung,
the azure sea still sung
of the great fleet that sailed to Troy,
of years of longing and of pain.
We were young then --
and thought the song
of the ageless sea
was not for us.
All Roads Go Where They Will, 2010