No, I don’t come from Eleusis. Southern Italy.
Sandy returned from the Aegean rally in Nisyros.
I found Yannis in 37 and he bought me a mojito.
Mihos has reached the final stage
of his glorious grieving. Akanthos undertook
painting the first rung of the ladder.
X2, true to his nickname,
keeps chicks for only two weeks.
Fotis is sick of his mug and wants
to undergo face plastic surgery. Goumas
hasn’t set foot out of Chalandri. Nikos
informs us that the Secret Service
stopped monitoring his computer.
It always happens like-so.
The Furies have chased Irene out of Argos.
Dimitri, his bosses out of Zara.
Hector’s been kicked out of his house. Laskaris
never stopped asking for loans in June, July
and August. Kostas managed to double
his profits. And Spyros writes a poem every
day in Marseille, Glyfada and Olympia.
Yannis and Tasia celebrated 50 years of
marriage in Rovies. Mitsos voluntarily entered
Sinouri’s clinic for a month. Elena said she
was cutting down on wine, then changed her mind.
It always happens like-so.
Gheli returned from a plain Chalkidiki with the doctor
two years now still unmarried. Joanna escaped for a bit
from her kids and her husband and went alone
to Pylos. Katerina bought a small one-bedroom flat
on the top floor in New Smyrna and is blissful.
Maraki returned from her one-night stand
to a cold douche at dawn. Lina was afraid to carry
from Colombia a souvenir coca-leaf for everybody. Our wives had
sex with our friends and we with the wives of our friends.
Those of us who happened to still have children
sat down and patched things up. It always happens like-so.
Before the Revolution.
Translated by Jack Hirschman and Aggelos Sakis
From the book „Food Line“
Poems Without Borders 