poem & pie

poem and pie
             for Markie, who knows him

At the very spot we waited…

the locals
all knew him
how he sat
by the bakery
door and looked
out over the
confluence of
the intersection
as if near
misses and
orderly crossings
were all to please
him. it was him
who said i could
get a poem down
there, so i went
with him for a
coffee and something
baked, us taking our
chairs and looking
across the white bars
of the crossing,
waiting i
while he talked,
and hailed one
of the old timers
he knows down that
end of the road,

boat under moon

boat under moon
                             for Keikei

Boats waiting for the moon, as imagined by the Weathercats

evening
tipped out
under a
half moon and
a sailing boat
anchored under that
in shoals of silver
a home in the
light
that wind
hurrying waves
on to the shore
the shells sifting
the silences out
into hearing
you felt the
cold i held
you we
kissed
it needs
no romance

thinner than water

thinner than water
                       lament for a civil war
                       Greece, 1943 – 1949

Photo of the Plain of Thessalia with the river Pineios by Evgeni Dinev, sourced from shinygreece.com.

there was
blood in the
Aoos, the Aliakmonas,
the Pineios, the Enipeas,
the Evrotas, the Acheron,
there was blood in
crumbling ribbons,
loosed over sands
in all the rivers
of greece, blood that
poured from gun
and out of
torn off boots,
blood in all the
rivers of greece
in mountains
and on plains
and the gods wept
coldly as snow
to see it from
ida and olymbos,
for they were
insubstantial to
this killing,