V
from The Lady of Syros
Summary
It was yesterday
a thousand and a thousand years ago
I was watching the horizon
place where the dead gather those vagabonds
I had to stride across the sea to find my twin my equal my brother
my mother's voice sailed above Santorini sailed above Chios
seen from afar, Syros looked like a chessboard white and black
Syros, Santorini, Delos, Chios, magma of lava mud and polluted water a thousand years later
the din reached me in my dark den of a world another world had pushed away and I rejoiced
a cataclysm meant for those who live above
those who live below are sheltered between two stones
The archaeologist who just unearthed me didn't know the man who sculpted me
didn't know my mother or the colour of her voice
nor the sorrow of our two linden trees when my brother's body was carried past
nor the way their leaves applauded when the procession disappeared […]
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- A Handful of Blue EarthPoems by Vénus Khoury-Ghata, pp. 9 - 10Publisher: Liverpool University PressPrint publication year: 2017